Amazon recommended 2017’s Exhume to me based on other movies I’ve watched, which now has me seriously reconsidering my viewing habits.  Advertised as based on a true story, Exhume uses the atrocities committed at a Florida school for boys as the backdrop for its haunted tale.

• Directed By: Scott Poiley
• Written By:  Scott Poiley
• Starring: William Haze, Alice Rietveld, Sarah Sculco

Sadly, Exhume fails to handle this delicate subject, or the broader topic of mental illness, with any kind of respect or dignity.  It’s hard to continuously argue for the legitimacy of horror as an art form when it feels like the filmmakers participating in the art can’t commit.  H³ has heard me make this comment before. I’m overjoyed that I get to use it here: the issues I have with the script are one hundred percent fixable with one more editing pass and some light dialogue revisions. This was, thematically speaking, a salvageable mess, but to expound on that, I’ll have to get into some spoiler territory.

Review and Recap – Spoilers ahead

After a moody black and white opening that shows what looks like the murder of a child, we jump to the present. This is such an effective opening.

Married archeologist and forensic anthropologist duo Patrick and Karen Conner have been hired to search for the body of Samuel, a former resident of the School for Boys who went missing during his stay there. The current owner of the property and son of the previous headmaster won’t let them bring in a crew to avoid bad publicity. He also warns them about bringing their teen daughter there, dropping not-so-subtle hints about religion.

The husband-and-wife team arrive on site with their teen daughter, Emma, who clearly doesn’t want to be there.  Right off the bat, the wind kicks off and leads her to an abandoned building with a very red door.  After she discovers all kinds of creepy things in the building, a man with deep cuts all over his body grabs her repeatedly asking for help finding “it”.  He then drops dead.

Turns out he was real, not a ghost or vision, and was the former groundskeeper who has now died from self-inflicted wounds. The medical examiner takes his body away, and we never speak of him again.

How Not To Parent a Teen

Despite some clearly haunted happenings, Emma isn’t all that forthcoming with information. It turns out its for good reason; she’s taking medicine for a non-specific mental illness, although they do mention her depression and previous suicide attempts. Her illness isn’t the only reason she’s not willing to bring things up. Her parents, although they start off well, quickly reveal themselves to be unempathetic and unhelpful.

Just so we are clear: they took their mentally ill daughter out of her familiar environment and stable routine, for at least a month, to look for dead bodies while staying in an abandoned facility with no modern amenities.  This is not good parenting; I wouldn’t even call this mediocre parenting. Karen might be one of the worst non-villain horror movie mothers.  She flips wildly between telling her daughter she knows what she’s going through — she doesn’t — to telling Emma to come help her look for bodies.  

Emma starts sleepwalking and waking up in graves, and even Karen starts experiencing elements of the haunting.

Where Things Go Wrong

Unfortunately, somewhere around 35 minutes into Exhume, the quality takes a weird dip. Characters have expositional conversations they would have already known (mother’s family history of depression), and the cinematography becomes static and cheap looking in interior shots, although the exteriors are still pretty nice.

This is also the point where, thematically, the movie goes off the rails. Emma is getting more possessed by the spirit of Samuel but until her father experiences his own haunting nightmare, he doesn’t seem to believe her. This nightmare leads him to a diary of all the atrocities committed by the staff of the facility.

Patrick brings the diary to the man who hired him, but he believes that kids deserved to suffer, that the kids were demons.  This is reinforced when they give Samuel’s sister the diary. She tells them how horrible the child Samuel was. He was so evil that he killed her family. Then his spirit either blows up her car or possesses Emma so that she does it, killing the sister. Either way, no one mentions this major incident again. No big.

Trivializing Tragedy

What happens in the back half of Exhume deeply trivializes the true story it’s “based” on by even hinting at the concept that the boys deserved their cruel fate, that they were truly evil. This is a rough take, and no matter how much the movie wants to put the focus just on one boy, this “twist” exonerates and justifies the perpetrators of horrific abuse.  

Combining possession and mental illness is not new to horror, and it has been done with subtly and insight. There are fantastic movies that handle these subjects. If you are looking for some recommendations: The Taking of Deborah Logan is a horrifying and heartbreaking examination of dementia and demons.  Hereditary is another brilliant example of how powerful combining grief, depression, and possession can be.   These experiences are also something that is largely personal, and different people with different backgrounds may have a wildly different reaction.

Back To Fiction

Exhume lumbers on to its conclusion with Emma fully possessed and committed to a full-on murder spree.  In an impressive visual, the bodies of the “evil” children are exhuming themselves to haunt the family. Possessed Emma kills her mom and almost gets her dad, but he knocks her out.

The next morning? He buries mom on the grounds, and then gospel music plays as his car drives away.

An anonymous tip turns the former home in to the state. A news clip informs the viewer an investigation has begun. I’m sure they will find all the remaining bodies, Including probably his wife’s? That won’t be any kind of issue.  Dad starts his own DIY exorcisms, but nothing seems to work. He hears the creepy owner’s words about “salvation by suffering” echoing in his head. So, the movie ends with Dad torturing his possessed daughter to get her back.

What the hell is this movie?

Truth In Fiction

One of the important things about the true story this was based on is that in some cases, the survivors and their relatives may still be alive. The school was still running in the ‘60s. Adapting and profiting off true stories requires thinking about who you are telling stories about. It’s a trap true crime fans have fallen into time and time again by not respecting recent victims.

Having a platform is a privilege. You can tell violent and upsetting stories while still considering the messages and themes you are putting out into the world. Terrifier 3 murders innocent people in horrific ways but takes the time to reflect on the downsides of rubbernecking at someone else’s tragedy.

The further in time a movie is from the real events that inspired it, the more room there is to take liberty with history. Jack the Ripper fascinates creators and while some takes on that infamous series of murders are less tasteful than others, there are few living who are personally affected by these works.

Which brings us back to Exhume. One of the reasons the “boys were evil and deserved it” take bothers me so much is that while this particular school may be closed, the Troubled Teen Industry continues harm children. Congress passed stronger laws and better protections for children in 2024. It remains to be seen if it will be enough.

Too Close to Home

In February 2024, one such program was involved in the death of a twelve-year-old boy in my home state.  After the death was discovered, the facility refused to cooperate with the investigation. The medical examiner ruled the death homicide by asphyxia. Officials removed all the children from the facility. This is just the most recent in a long string of programs involved in abuse and neglect cases. I’m sure in many of these cases, the perpetrators of such cruelty would feel as if their victims “deserved it”.

 Final Thoughts

After such a promising start, it’s unfortunate that Exhume diluted its powerful inspiration with terrible messaging and such a dip in production quality. It’s not often that I struggle to recommend movies to anyone, but this might be the first. Not recommended for fans of thoughtful, introspective, scary horror. You may find something to enjoy if you’re a fan of gorgeous establishing shots though.

Also, William Haze, who played Patrick Connor, passed away after filming. He was one of the bright spots in this movie as a father trying to support a daughter he doesn’t understand.  He was clearly talented, and despite how I feel about the rest of the movie, I’m glad I got the opportunity to appreciate him in this.  So maybe just watch it for him or check out his other work.

Exhume is available on streaming now:

Check other horror reviews here:

• Deer Camp ’86
• Final Wish