It's Coming is a paranormal documentary directed by Shannon Alexander (Be Still), which had its debut at Hot Docs (Nightvision). It has been a fair while since I saw a doc based around ghosts or potential demonic activity, and this one was from a slightly different perspective, as I am more familiar with these shown from the perspectives of demonologists, such as with Devil Down South and Malefice - A True Story of a Demonic Haunting.
This takes place in and around the apartment block home of Ashley Rowland and her family. She claims to have been seeing unexplainable supernatural entities since she was 11. Later in life, after moving back to her family's long located Brooklyn apartment, she begins to experience constant supernatural activity around her, something that her children also see as well. In 2022, a film crew record her and her children experiences at their apartment, as Ashley attempts to find a solution to what she believes to be experiencing. a spirit medium (Soledad Haren) visits, and later a demonologist couple (Chris and Harmony DeFlorio) attempt to help clear her apartment of any entities that might reside there.
I'm used to these types of documentaries being approached from an investigative angle, usually by experts visiting the reportedly haunted location. This was different in that the bulk of the film is just the documentary crew in the Rowland home hanging out. It was indie in style with basic presentation. That's not to say the film quality was bad, there was some decent editing here, and everything is presented as real with no cutaways to talking heads, or cheesy recreations of events. The presentation works at making this feel like a real life found footage movie. I am annoyingly sceptical when it comes to things like this, but that isn't to say that the family here are making anything up, it is clear from how they appear on camera that they legitimately believe something strange is happening, having long gotten used to it. The low presentation works at integrating the viewer into the household, you come to get a feel for the family dynamics, Ashley and her children come across as a legitimate unit, the children acting exactly how you would expect children to be, natural rather than performing for the camera.
I did at times wish there had been some type of narration for the viewer, whether by text on screen or someone speaking. This was especially the case with the cold opening where it just starts without any real introduction as to who these people are and what has been going on. The same applies to the ending, I again thought some type of end text saying how the family have been getting on since the documentary had been made would have been useful. Thinking about that though, the cold opening and ending feed into the feel that this is real life found footage.
This follows a progressive path and is made up mostly of interviews with Ashley and her children. There are also strange events that have been caught on camera edited in, showing the footage where unexplained things really did get caught on camera. There is genuine concern from Ashley in wanting to protect her kids from everything going on. She comes across as someone supremely fed up with all the paranormal events and ready to go to any lengths to end it. You do hear strange noises, see strange shadows, and indeed, hear strange accounts of seeing shady figures in black over the course of the documentary, as well as one seriously creepy children's drawing.
It's Coming was an intimate feeling documentary that made you feel like a visitor to the family's home. They came across as sincere, while the questions asked by the documentary crew were good at getting them to provide interesting information. Lacking a little in presentation, this documentary nonetheless remained a mostly fascinating watch.
SCORE:
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