It’s Coming (2023) Film Review – A True Mother’s Nightmare

Posted on by Kate DeJonge

Director/Producer Shannon Alexander presents It’s Coming (2023), a compelling documentary about one woman’s journey to rid her home of unwanted ghosts while her young son Javier can still be saved. Day Trader and mother of 5, Ashley Roland-White claims that she’s been haunted by a spirit named Max since she was 11 years old, but it wasn’t until Javier admitted to playing with his new friend “Kitty” that she sought help. They were, in fact, preparing to shoot an entirely different documentary about sleep paralysis when Alexander decided to pivot to focus on Ashley and her son, instead. There were already dozens (if not hundreds!) of paranormal investigation shows and documentaries available to stream just about everywhere, but the story behind It’s Coming provided a few unique details.

First and foremost, Ashley is African American (self-proclaimed in the film). Alexander thoughtfully explores this key component, asking Ashley direct questions about why being Black makes it harder to ask for spiritual help. She candidly discusses the stigmas involved, making a solid case for her reluctance without discussing racism. She did not make this film to open anyone’s eyes to a “Black problem”, she made it to showcase humanity’s blatant disregard for anything they do not understand. 

It's coming

The second unique element is that this haunting happens in a Brooklyn apartment that once belonged to Ashley’s in-laws. She and her husband moved in with them years ago and stayed after her grandfather-in-law passed away. He, too, believed there were spirits in their home. Most paranormal investigations are taped at abandoned institutions or inside houses; very few are made in a single apartment. Even fewer were generationally owned. This is important because it adds to the back story without needing to do any research. Grandpa told Ashley that previous tenants had practiced a form of gray magic in their apartment, and that’s where he believed the lost souls came from. No Native burial land, no murders in the building, just folks being weird, stirring stuff up, and leaving a portal for future tenants to deal with. 

The third piece that I found interesting was that the haunting seemed to focus on Ashley’s 7-year-old son, Javier and that his behaviour clearly changes throughout filming. These are real people, not paid actors, and Javier’s deterioration is chilling. In the opening scenes, Alexander interviews Javier, asking him questions about the “dark thing” he claims to see. Javier is a fun, energetic little boy who answers the questions concisely. As the days go by, though, he becomes withdrawn and keeps looking over the camera’s shoulder at something we can’t see. There is, of course, a chance that Javier is just a very theatrical child who knows how to get attention…but what if he’s not. As with any paranormal documentary, the audience is left to decide what is true and what is not. Demonologists are eventually called in, and they claim that Javier may truly be in the early stages of possession. 

Before the Demonologists are called, Ashley allows Soledad Harem, a medium, to come into her house to do a cleansing, but that only makes things worse. During interview sessions afterward, the ceiling light goes out, a boom mike falls and almost lands on Ashley’s head, and EVPs catch some particularly scary growls. We should note that there are no post-production special effects in this film; what you see is exactly what happened. And that doesn’t amount to much, honestly, but it’s enough to make borderline skeptics potentially tune in and pay more attention to what’s going on around them in their own lives even before the Demonologists step in.

It's Coming

Chris and Harmony DeFlorio of the New York Demonic Investigations Ministry step in when it becomes clear that there’s something very wrong with Javier. They arrive with cases of modern ghost-hunting paraphernalia and vials of holy water. One of the most compelling bits of evidence comes from their Kinect camera. It’s a piece of equipment not often seen in these shows, but it should be. An XBox Kinect camera detects humans in the vicinity and maps out their joints to accurately mirror a player’s movements within a game. Using it to detect ghosts is just brilliant. Chris points it at any area that Ashley senses or sees something uncanny, and actually catches a full body on screen. When he tells it to leave the apartment, it visibly grows and stretches before disappearing! Knowing that nothing was faked or embellished in It’s Coming makes that moment pivotal. 

There are morally questionable elements to this film, like using an Ouija board alone and compelling a young child to repeatedly discuss his terrifying encounters with “Kitty”, but Ashley seems to have always been open and candid with her children about her psychic abilities. For them, this is how life has always been, and I think that’s a large part of the message that Alexander is trying to impart. Whether you’re a believer or not, there are people out there dealing with traumas like this, and they would rather suffer alone than potentially be mocked or scorned. Humanity’s belief in ghosts is timeless, and It’s Coming might just contain enough proof to challenge those who think it’s just a bunch of hocus pocus. 

Freestyle Digital Releasing/Canoe Film is releasing the US Virtual Premiere on November 8, 2024. It will be available worldwide on November 12, 2024. 

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