Pretty Good

Fantastic!

Excellent but underrated film

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film opens with kind of a creepy, promising narrative given by the actress (Jackie Weaver) who played the daughter in All in the Family whose haggard appearance is perhaps the most frightening aspect of the movie. Here's how it pans out: main 18-year-old dude goes for a good old fashioned stroll through the snowy woods and finds a girl in the freezing cold with no jacket crying about something she won't reveal. Next night, she ends up in the bed of our main guy—she sneaks on in there, by the way, and he wakes up to find her there, and is just like yeah, sure, no problem, and promises to protect her. Two jump scares and a cheap CGI character aren't enough to hold this movie up, and by the time you get to the end, nobody's motivations make any sense, living or dead, and are inconsistent to say the least. STOP now if you want to be surprised, because here comes the spoiler, and while there are several plot holes and unanswered questions, this is the one that irks me: if that girl from the woods is the daughter of Jackie Weaver's now-dead husband and his mistress, the fact that the girl says her mother died obviously holds up. The fact that she has a drunk dad who beats her...that's clearly not her birth dad, right, because the ghost comes for the birth dad too, in the movie's cold open? And we don't get to see the dad's face when the kid comes to check on the girl for a reason, as it's very obviously blurred, making you think that it will somehow become relevant. It doesn't. Did someone decide "meh, that's good enough" when they went back and realized they had to cover their tracks when it came to one of the most important plot elements of the film—which, seriously, leads to nothing—the fact that her dad beats her? Also, um, for what reason does this ghost want to kill the 'biological' dad in the beginning? Weren't they in love? What did he do wrong? I'm gonna give her the benefit of the doubt and guess that it's because he sat there like an idiot watching his wife about to slit this woman's throat without making a move to stop her.Then again, I sat there like an idiot watching all 87 minutes of this nonsense, so I guess that makes us even. Oh, and the ghost lets one person live: THE WOMAN WHO KILLED HER. REALLY? YOU'RE KILLING INNOCENT CHILDREN BUT SHE'S GOOD TO GO? Also, way to go framing your daughter for murder and getting her sent to jail, ghost lady! You are totally crushing it when it comes to getting that vengeance of yours on everyone except the one person you should be concerned with.IFC Midnight is really starting to drop the ball.

Talking about "Haunt" (2013) Directed by Max Carter and Written by Andrew Barrer, Spoilers ahead, as I am going to discuss this movie, This movie opens with a scenario that is almost by the book; Family moves into house with bad reputation. Perhaps The Amityville Horror(1979) set the precedent, and it has been used countless times since then. So, the question is, how do you keep it interesting? Starting off with a good cast is a step in the right direction. Here, all the leads are fine. It is the two teens leads, Evan Played by Harrison Gilbertson, and the neighbor girl he befriends, Sam played by Liana Liberato who carry the story; Sam knows the history of the house, and the folks who lived there before. She leads Evan to the houses dark secret,Evan's Parents, Alan and Emily, played by Brian Wimmer, and Lone Skye Just bought the old home in the country, and are moving their family there. Their son Even and his two sisters, Sara and the younger Anita. Played by Danielle Churchran, and Ella Harris. Both have a sense that all is not right with the house,More so, the older Sara. Rounding out the cast is Janet Morello, The house's prior owner, with a secret. Played by Jacki Weaver, The adults go through the movie, mostly oblivious to the malignant force that is terrifying the kids. At other times the Parents are conspicuously absent. Just written that way, they had to be out of the picture for the duration of the last third of the film, only to return at the end.By the first half the nature of the movie shifts as Evan and Sam want to explore the mystery of the spirits, They do so with the aid of a machine that can, "Talk to the Dead" A door was opened with awful consequences ensuing as the young ones fool with things they do not understand.The Machine is beautiful. a cross between a ham radio device, and a wire running recorder. It had a crank up generator. and gages and tubes. It was a beautiful construct.that stole the show. Hat's off to the design team that cooked it up.The sound design was good, fine cinematography by Adam Marsden, shot in Utah in early winter. Competently scored by Reinhold Heil, and Edited with style. I liked the initial restraint, Building the mood. and the "mood" had a lot to do with the power of this production. It did have it's jump moments and carried an air of dread, while all the while you were rooting for the Eliot and Sam, One winces when they decide to do stupid things. Eight, We've seen it all before, Stars, but seldom so classy, out of Ten.

A sensible teenage boy befriends a troubled young lady and together they try to communicate with the previous deceased occupants who died under mysterious circumstances.To director Mac Carter's credit Haunt has one of the most chilling ghost story openings put to screen, in addition he offers jump scare after jump scare, which never grows old thanks to some solid acting, music, sound design and eerie effects. Although Andrew Barrer's screenplay is inherently another ghost genre copy there's plenty of intriguing thanks to the McGuffin radio they use to communicate with the dead. Thankfully the focal characters don't fall into the annoying teen category. The teen relationship doesn't become too cheesy and its refreshing that the parents don't take centre stage which avoids Haunt becoming another Conjuring or Amityville Horror clone.With an on location feel Haunt is creepy and remains scary throughout with even some of the day light scenes raising hairs. Ione Skye as the concerned mother is notable and the abused teen, Megan Fox- ailke Liana Liberato is effective. The star of the show is Jacki Weaver as Janet Morello who is intense and creepy in a small role. Sadly, Danielle Chuchran's screen time is limited as she steals every scene as to dose the younger sister played by Ella Harris, possibly to avoid story comparisons to the aforementioned and many other similar horrors.Even though you can see the twist coming a mile away, reminiscent of Stir of Echoes it's a respectably old-school ghost chiller that's wonderfully put together with scary visuals and a great narcissistic ending.There could have been more focus around the photos in the shed and little more about the EVP box history but the ambiguity works. If there's one thing Carter can do, it's create tension and thrills. Don't let the mediocre poster fool you this is one of the scariest modern old school style horror stories out there.

A film which was not promising at first, which I have stumbled upon accidentally, proved to be very thrilling. The acting is very satisfying, I would say go ahead for everyone who wants to get psyched a little. Managed to scare me here and there, but really scare me, something almost no horror movie managed to do. Although the concept maybe a tad washed up: haunted house which has gone through a tragedy and a new family moving in, plus a creepy daughter in the new family, it does tend to jump off a little and not exactly follow the clichés. As I sad previously, highly recommendable and a real pleasure to watch. Definitely one of the best horror flicks I have watched recently.