The Jessica Cabin
Written & Directed by Daniel Montgomery
Starring Daniel Montgomery, Riley Rose Critchlow, Chase Williamson, Will Tranfo, Kylee Thurman, and Melinda DeKay
Runtime: 73 minutes
Now Available on VOD and DVD

by Joe Carlough, Staff Writer

What would you do if you woke up dead one day but found you were still existing in the place where you died? How would you fill your time? That’s the question at the forefront of The Jessica Cabin as ghost besties Jackson and Taylor watch visitors come and go from the rental property in which they reside seemingly indefinitely. How do they fill their days, you may ask? By telling stories, remembering their favorite meals from when they were living, and obsessively following their tenants around the cabin. 

While the visitors can’t see them, the two certainly get the most that they can out of their occasional roommates, following them from room to room and playing spectator to all their activities–as private as some of those activities are meant to be. But a terrible mistake shakes up the ghosts’ seemingly-everlasting afterlife once they decide to meddle in the lives of two particularly attractive guests, Chase Williamson’s Nicky and Will Tranfo’s Preston (the true star of the movie is the outfit Preston wears during their second dinner at the cabin). Soon, our ghostly pals find themselves struck with the enormity of their actions and the weight of consequence.

The initial premise is funny enough, and The Jessica Cabin has comedy in spades. I could spend all day with the deadpan delivery of Riley Rose Critchlow as the genderqueer spirit Taylor and the frankly hilarious expressions from director/writer Daniel Montgomery’s gay ghost Jackson. There’s enough between the two of them to warrant a reality show in which the two simply follow people around making commentary of everyday life–a true testament to Montgomery’s script and the chemistry between the two actors. But comedy is not the only thing The Jessica Cabin has packed in its bags. I teared up a few times from the confessional dialogue and the tender moments shared between the ghosts. This was heightened by the true questions of the film. Is the queer experience that of being unseen? Are we simply walking among the living normies, trying to find an afterlife in which we too can just “be normal?” It’s a sad, chilling thought, but one that’s all too familiar to me. 

To dive too deeply into the plot of The Jessica Cabin in this review is to give too much of the story away, a story that unfolds beautifully and effortlessly. The movie is paced well. I never once felt the need to check the time or lost a moment to my thoughts. While the entire film is shot at one location, it never feels claustrophobic; the characters bring such life to the cabin that we’re forever inhabiting it with them, comforted by their presence. The movie gives a lot and asks very little. It tells us that maybe in life you do have to do some of the hard work to heal, because our past traumas might follow us into death. But even then, we learn, it’s still not too late to gain a little clarity, understanding, and self-love.