Acting was ok but script gave characters with little or logical depth. At many times I thought characters with small roles would deepen and develop the story but then they seemed to disappear from the story even though their roles in the story if expanded would have given this film more sense to a confusing story. The hospital priest seemed to have unexplained insight into what was going on then suddenly disappeared. There was a role of an expert in to the afterlife and possession. I think. Very confusing character. I assumed this would be explained more later in the movie with his help in the couples situation. But then he was not to be seen again even though he seemed aware of the situation and consequences. The concerned sister who appeared quickly and put the couple in contact with him disappeared from the film too. The major role of the husband was just baffling. He seemed to be dismissive of the supernatural. Then a believer. Then not. And so on. His father was a policeman who's wife left him to bring his son up alone. Why? Was this an upcoming strong plot point. Nope. The wife had a father who had committed suicide because of his beliefs in supernatural. Was he mentally ill or actually able to see spirits etc? Could be an important plot point. Nope never mentioned again.
The ending did not make any sense whatsoever. I think I know what it was trying to be. But I could be totally wrong it was that confusing.
There was an ongoing terrible special effect that could have been forgiven if the story was better handled. But it wasnt so made the film look even cheaper.
The quality of the actors was hard to judge as the material and story was so poor.
Very disappointing for me. So many directions the film could have gone in that may have been better.It may have been edited badly and had a more coherent plot removed that made the film seem worse who knows? All I can say is in my opinion this is a very poor movie. I dont normally read too many reviews of movies I am attracted to to avoid spoilers so ultimately the blame lies in me for not looking at others views especially on IMDB for a little insight before viewing. And again that ending? Oh dear! If this review contains spoilers I would really like to know what they are and I maybe misunderstood a classic. But I find that highly unlikely.
Add a Review
-
mulcahyj-075459 March 2020
-
Magnus-8322 December 2019When I started watching this movie, the premise seemed great. You know, a young couple moving in to a new home, and soon having their life ruined by some kind of supernatural entity. (Yes, it might sound familiar, and there is another movie with a title ending with "-belle" built on about the same premise.)
Unfortunately it was poorly executed. No, wait. Poorly? We're rather talking about sheer incompetence here. Not mistakes, but deliberately bad decision making.
So, here comes the spoilers. This is just one of all those movies built on the idea that one of the protagonists experience some kind of supernatural/demonic entity, while the rest of the characters don't. The female sees this, uhm, thing, but her husband don't. A well known movie trope - portray the protagonist as isolated in his or her struggle against whatever horror he/she is up against.
And that's the problem. It could've been built on the premise that the female protagonist sees this ghost (or whatever it's meant to be), while the male protagonist don't and subsequently doesn't believe in it. Yet, the dude (husband) goes off to see some kind of voodoo priest or whatever kind of hoodoo holy this character is supposed to be, to get some advice on what's haunting his wife. You know, the kind of supporting character that sees dead people and all that, and has answer to all the questions about how to handle the situation, but no help to offer at all. Yet the husband returns to his wife, believing that she's just going nuts, after being told by - and believing - the hoodoo holy that she isn't, and that there actually is a ghost out to get them. IE, in one shot he believes her, in the next one he doesn't. Come on, make up your mind, will ya?
And the ghost? Well, we get to see her up close in every now and then. Yes, up close. In full detail. That. Is. Not. How. You. Build. Suspense. Adding red glowing eyes with CGI to the ghost doesn't make it more scary. It just looks cheap.
With a more skilled director (as well as script writer), this could have been a great horror flick. What we got was some kind of high school project in film making. -
zhyarTheChosen9 March 2020Please don't waste an hour and half and the edit is even worse
-
lagrecasimone22 August 2019This movie got everything wrong. The plot is lazy and unoriginal, the characters are horribly written and horribly acted and the "special effects" are incredibly cheap (am I supposed to take those red eyes seriously? I have seen better effects in Goosebumps). Plus the ending makes no sense and the direction is non-existent. I'm baffled that such garbage found its way in the theatres.
-
africe10 October 2019Wow! Where does one start on this stupidity? Beginning had promise but ventured into impossible possession. Don't waste your time
-
hindy-256459 September 2019It always depresses me when I see a movie and recognize that no one involved in making it cared about the movie at all. Normally you'll see it in live-action pet movies or Christian movies but in horror there is normally a producer, or writer or director or heck even a special effects person that gave a damn. Not the case here. It was a waste of time and its very existence is cluttering up the world.
-
nogodnomasters2 June 2019Matthew (Adam Brody) and his very expecting wife Larissa (Amanda Crew) move into a Saratoga Springs home. They neighbor Ann (Sheila McCarthy) cares for her demonically possessed daughter Isabelle (Zoë Belkin). Isabelle was sexually molested and given to Satan by her father Frank before the church could do it. Larissa has a stillborn child and was clinically dead for a minute (like my ex-wife used to be during sex). Being dead for a minute has caused her to see the gates of hell and the dead somehow like her, especially the creepy girl next door who may or may not be in a wheelchair.
This appears to be a faith-based horror and not a good one. Like a non-Catholic writing about Catholics. Guns don't kill evil spirits. Guns kill mirrors.
Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity. -
payupyou17 November 2019I enjoyed portions of the film while others were under-cooked, incomplete, or unnecessary. I'll give no spoilers and I see no reason to restate the description - seemed like a handful of ideas based loosely on other films. There wasn't enough character development and not enough direction. We end up post editing with a little of this and a little of that and maybe not enough of any one thing. The film wasn't all that bad but I had a difficult time getting close enough to any one character to really feel invested as an audience. The film did not have that low budget B feel which made the meandering and slower pace tolerable. Special effects are minimal and fairly well executed. The film could have been better had the director done a better job. The cast suffered because the director let them down and that let the audience down.
-
knifeskillz7 July 2019Did not understand the ending really. Decent horror,could be more professional at Directing. A little confusing for go lost at the end. Can someone explain what really happened at the point where the girl was back in the window,the husband chokes and kills the wife to get her back?
-
jollyjumpup6 June 2021I was very happy with the first half of this movie. Finally, after wading through the swamp of poorly written horror films with medicocre direction that seem the norm for the genre in the last few years, a cohesive, well-directed one at last, with good production values and an attractive, talented cast.
Whoops, hold the phone. Just as I was getting set for a riveting third act, out came the cheesy efx - specifically a pair of blinking red eyes that might work on a novelty Halloween dummy but were ridiculous as a movie effect. And boy did they come out, blinking faster and bigger and hoakier as the movie progressed. It seemed we'd slipped out of The Exorcist territory into Scary Movie or Devil Baby.
As if blinded by the crazy red blinking lights, the director went haywire as well, with critical climactic action getting choppy and murky. And then the screenplay went off the rails as well, with a totally unsatisfying, nonsensical ending that must have been a tragic attempt to make the film "more interesting."
The real horror is that no one reeled this mess in. With more judicious efx and a less convoluted ending, this could have been really good. -
This movie tackles grief, desperate resorts for a child who is born with a birth defect, the loss of a stillborn child, mental illness, strange neighbors, and a second opportunity in LIFE after experiencing a near death experience. I enjoyed the role of Larissa. A woman who refuses to allow her inner conflict take over her life. She fights every step of the way even after experiencing hauntings from the same spirit. Larissa dies for one minute when she undergoes a miscarriage. That one minute becomes crucial in the plot and conflict of this story. I was thoroughly impressed with the writing of Donald Martín, the directing of Robert Heydon, the acting of Amanda Crew, Adam Brody, Sheila McCarthy, and Zoe Belkin, and the music of Mark Korven. I liked how all the pieces and elements fell together to create an ending I never anticipated. Isabelle is worth watching.
-
I gave this one star less because of the film's dismal look. Although, that minus point is a virtual minus point, because I couldn't give it anything lower than 1/10.
Even the trees and grass look grey! Brown bushes? You can find them here! It's those damn new film-makers who ushered in this age of drab-looking crap grey movies. Even television is affected by this new affliction. Or not even that new; this has been going on for almost 20 years now. For 20 years now people have been increasing the brightness and contrast on their TV sets, trying to get a clearer, better picture. Directors play the original footage (which must look a LOT better than what we get) through their bloody laptops and diminish/alter the colours on purpose, or, as in this case, take them away almost entirely. So no, IMDb claiming that this flick is in colour is a blatant fallacy. The existence and perpetuation of this pathetic wave of glum-looking movies - in pretty much all genres except comedy - is a mystery to me. There seems to be no end to this idiotic trend. Do film-makers actually believe that UGLIFYING their movies will make them "more dramatic", more tense, more atmospheric - and better? We only get to see colours in comedies. But because modern comedies are so horrible, what's the use... They may as well darken them too...
Are 70s movies colourless? They most certainly aren't. And yet they look very realistic, they are moody, and their subtle "graininess" gives them a certain quality that these plastic-looking modern turds can't even remotely approach. So shut down your bloody laptops and intricate photoshop programs - and start making CINEMATIC films again! You lazy non-talent zombie putzes...
Amanda Crew is the main reason I picked this. One of the very best - and prettiest - of all actresses of her generation, she can single-handedly carry a movie, even a weak one. Not a crap one though: she's not Superwoman.
It doesn't start off weak, but it certainly gets completely lost around the middle in plot/motive confusion and repetitiveness. It gets stuck in a rut, this rut perhaps being used to pad the plot because it's so paper-thin. I hate it when a plot starts going in circles, and that's exactly what the bulk of the movie essentially is. 1. Crew experiences something supernatural, yet her husband either doesn't believe her or is totally confused. 2. Repeat. That's the MO here. When a ghost is so bored that all it can do is play hide-and-seek with its victims, over and over, then you know the plot is over with, i.e. the movie is an abortion.
In the beginning Crew's husband is a believer in possession, then NOT a believer. Shouldn't that be the other way round?
What's with "The Saratoga Daily" publishing their articles in Italian! Or did I simply get an Italian copy of the film? But if so, WHY go through the bother of photoshopping all the laptop scenes with a non-English language? Can't Italians read subtitles? Oh right... They can't. They synchronize everything, because CLEARLY movies sound so much better with all the original voices replaced by sound-studio hacks overacting their bums off in a different language.
These Saratoga articles are the only hints we get for an ENTIRE HOUR. I.e. while the ghost plays a repetitive, boring game of cat-and-mouse with Crew, we get almost no unraveling of the mystery, just some vague talk of a girl being used in a Satanic ritual many years ago. Because - clearly - girls abused and killed (?) by Satanists take over the bodies of recently pregnant women. Crew's husband can't see the wheelchair ghost, yet a woman that Crew meets early on can. Say what? The script is a mess.
Then when the story finally unfolds... it basically doesn't unfold as much as just poop on the audience. The ending is utterly moronic, illogical and even badly directed. AND it's all in "beautiful" black and white. Or brown and white.
It is pitiful that an actress as cute and competent as Crew is frittering away her best years on such nonsense. But hey, she didn't have the fortune of being born into a powerful Hollywood clan which would guarantee her all the top roles.
Then again, there ARE no top roles in the demonically possessed UnHolywood anymore. Because there are no more top movies. She should have been born 20-30 years earlier. -
jacobjohntaylor130 July 2019This is a good movie. It has a good story line. It also has good acting. 4.6 is underrating it. This is a very scary movie. See it. It is one of the scariest movies I have seen.
-
stephenbell-360419 July 2019Started out promising but descended into preposterous religious twaddle. What could have been a study of mental illness brought on by a miscarriage instead went into fantasy mode involving priests and mystics.
-
karin-lumio29 May 2019The movie has potential, good actors and obviously some kind of budget but then there are some moments that makes the movie look like it has been made by high-school students. When you have a budget why ruin it? Why try and then ruin it on dumb details? Watched 30 minutes... the "scary" parts wasn't even nearly frightening. The girl in the window looks like a model posing with pale make-up and a dull filter over the picture every time she shows on screen. Spooooky... not. It would have been more scary if the girl just stood/sat there without any ghost-like makeup. If you as a director can't see such a simple thing how can you make even a slightly successful watchable movie? I didn't want to waste more time to find out if it had any quality to it or not. If you do, I'll come back and read about it!
-
gaetanif6 June 2019One of the worst, idiot film,dumb story, cheap Green make up i saw in my entire life,
-
borgolarici21 August 2019Boring. Not overly bad but incredibly boring. Nothing new.
-
kikkie-8465715 March 2020God awful movie!! Worst 81 minutes ever! Don't waste your time watching this. It's By far one of the worst "horror" movies I've ever watched.
-
kathmummybear13 February 2020It started off well and showed promise but then it nose dived fast ! Switched off half way through .
-
fstapleton-7554321 February 2020Found this to be a creepy and effective little horror. Smart enough to keep things short ( 75m - credits ) and moving quickly. Acting, script, direction all decent standard. Not very original and the ending is a bit clumsy but it does have its moments. More a decent time filler than anything, overall was glad I gave it a go despite the poor ratings.
-
ferdmalenfant18 November 2019A very poorly made and acted crappy movie. NOT scary at all.
-
vitamutatio7 October 2021*Warning - Spoilers below*
Great Premise, but the movie needed more runtime. It felt like there were two stories being told, one for Larissa and one for Isabelle..
Many reviewers were not kind to this film, but I found it a decent thriller.
I don't think the film was meant to be jump-out-of-your-chair scary. I believe it was meant to have that eerie, goosebumps, supernatural thriller flavor.
Anyway...onto my opinion of the film take it or leave it....
Matt and Larissa move to a new town and purchase a gorgeous home next door to some creepy neighbors. Larissa suffers a tragic loss and the film explores her struggle with the anguish and mental fatigue of coping and trying to resume a normal life again. Her spirit is weak and vulnerable to the attack she doesn't realize is coming for her.
Isabelle (Zoe Belkin) was born paralyzed and mute and was abused by her father and forced to participate in satanic rituals and later, according to her devil-worshiping father, was 'given over to the dark lord'. It made me feel bad for Isabelle since she was not a willing participant in any of it. She's a prisoner in her own body. She's unable to move, or at least not well, and is also mute. She just watches the world go by and cannot convey her thoughts, nor act on her own behalf. She sits in a room watching the world pass her by until she sees Larissa and Matt move in next door. Larissa has the life Isabelle has always dreamed of and she wants it. Belkin does an amazing job at conveying what Isabelle is feeling with only a facial expression. Some reviewers seem to feel that Isabelle is channeling an evil entity that wants Larissa, but I think that she is just using that dark energy to get what she wants because she can.
Isabelle's mother, Ann, has a room full of candles and religious items seemingly to makeup for Isabelle's father's transgressions. She's a very odd lady and does not speak much and seems to be wrought with guilt over her daughter.
While checking the mail, Larissa doubles over in pain and begins to bleed and holds out her phone to Ann to dial 911. (Apparently, she can hold out the phone at arms length but cannot dial it. Do people really have to be told they need to call 911 by the victim? I hate that in movies!)
At the hospital, the nurse tells Matt that, Larissa was clinically dead for 60 seconds and the entire movie is based on her experience in that minute in the 'afterlife'.
Larissa's baby doesn't make it and she's deeply depressed and begins to hear a baby crying. She begins to see Isabelle invading her space accompanied by a foul odor. Matt cannot see the spirit or smell it and begins to feel that Larissa is losing her mind. I think Amanda Crew did a great job portraying Larissa's fragile mental state and her spiral into depression and despair amplified by Isabelle's tormenting.
One night, while Matt and Larissa are sleeping, Isabelle appears hovering over their bed. Larissa wakes up and smells the odor which Matt cannot and tells Matt to check the alarm. Meanwhile, we see Isabelle in the closet caressing Larissa's wedding dress which is our first clue as to Isabelle's endgame.
The next day, Larissa sees Isabelle wearing her wedding dress and looking in the mirror which shows that Isabelle wants more than just the dress. Isabelle turns around and gives Larissa a sinister gaze and growls "Get out of MY life!" Larissa fires a gun and the wedding dress falls to the floor empty. Matt finds Larissa on the floor with the wedding dress and Larissa laments about how her mother thought she was a bad person and begs Matt not to divorce her. Nothing was mentioned of the dress nor what transpired which seemed odd. Matt kisses her and they make love. Isabelle watches with focus, envy and determination.
In the middle of the night, Larissa gets out of bed to go to the bathroom. This scene is punctuated by a shot of Larissa's hand and Matt's hand with fingers intertwined. Larissa slowly separates her hand from his and gets out of bed. This will be noteworthy later. Larissa comes back from the bathroom and finds Isabelle lying in her place next to Matt and smiling wickedly as though to say "I belong here, not you." and Larissa starts screaming. Matt wakes up and of course doesn't see what Larissa is screaming about.
Matt visits Pedro, a spiritualist, who warns Matt that Larissa is in a state of mind where she doesn't value her own life and that the spirit that is haunting her is angry and will take it from her if she can, exchanging Larissa's life for hers. He warns that Larissa must be strong and the will to live is everything. We already know from Larissa's suicide attempts that her will to live is weak and that Isabelle's is very strong. He also explains that because Larissa has bee 'through the gate that separates life from death' that she can see spirits as clearly as he and Matt can see each other. He explains that he will see Isabelle when she's ready to take Larissa's place or already has.
Matt comes home to find Larissa passed out from taking too many pills and makes her puke them up. Larissa tells Matt that Isabelle has been staring at her from the window. Matt and then goes next door to prove that there is no one there. No one is home so he creeps around and finds Isabelle's room. He finds Isabelle's body and calls the cops.
The police arrive and Larissa seems distant and is sitting on the bed. Matt tells her that he's going to talk to the police. She just blankly stares and turns her head as Matt goes down to talk to the police. It's as though her body were vacant. We never see Isabelle actually takeover, nor do we know if Larissa left her body or if Isabelle forced her out, but in either case it seems that this is the point where Isabelle succeeds in taking Larissa's place.
The next scene, to me anyway, is the best in the film. It has an eerie, sinister, supernatural vibe with the perfect musical score. When Matt returns, Larissa's eyes have a red glow as Matt climbs into bed. Here the background music really sets the mood and is absolutely perfect for the scene. As Matt puts his hand on his wife's body, and as soon as he speaks his wife's name and tells her it's over and everything will be okay, we see blue 'veins' move across Larissa's face an neck and then, Larissa morphs into Isabelle. I'm not sure if Matt has to accept Isabelle as his wife to complete her takeover of Larissa's body or not, but the timing seemed purposeful. Her hand, now adorned with Larissa's wedding rings, moves on top of his and their fingers intertwine. It's the exact same shot as earlier except in reverse as though to illustrate Larissa letting go and Isabelle taking hold. Isabelle moves their intertwined hands under the covers. Isabelle smiles a wickedly triumphant smile as she prepares to consummate her new marriage with her new body.
Next we see Larissa in Isabelle's wheelchair unable to move or speak. (Larissa is still wearing her wedding ring which I would have gotten rid of for the scene. I would have also dressed Larissa in the same thing Isabelle wore to further illustrate their lives had been exchanged and her marriage was now Isabelle's.) Isabelle now has what she desired; Larissa's healthy body and everything that goes with it. Isabelle knows that Larissa is now on the outside looking in from across the street and thoroughly enjoys making love to Matt while Larissa watches. I wish the lighting was a little brighter for this scene, but it's enough to show both Matt and Isabelle enjoying intense pleasure with their positioning such that Larissa can see both of their faces. They should have gotten at least as much screen time as Larissa's muffled screams, but the 3 seconds is enough to get the point across.
Isabelle had watched Larissa and Matt make love and envied Larissa and coveted what she had and now, it was hers. Matt gets up and Isabelle is glaring out the window with a look of sinister satisfaction. She can clearly see the tortured Larissa sitting in her old room with a look of terror as Isabelle stands in Larissa's place. Matt comes out of the bathroom and when he sees Larissa sitting in the window he realizes that it's Isabelle there with him, but I'm not sure he realizes that he'd made love to Isabelle and not his wife. It's a bit confusing. Isabelle attacks Matt and says "It's too late". Next she's downstairs in her old clothes throwing Matt around saying "You can't save her" Since Isabelle goes from wearing Larissa's clothes to her own it's confusing as to weather she actually took over Larissa's physical body or if Isabelle's spirit took physical form and replaced her in bed. It was never really explained that well.
Personally, I like a darker-themed film in the supernatural thriller genre. I think that Isabelle should have occupied Larissa's body for a lot longer. Larissa should have been made to watch more of her life being taken over by Isabelle and Matt should have gone longer before he realized that Isabelle had taken over Larissa's body. A larger struggle to reclaim Larissa would have been more thrilling, at least that's my opinion.
As with nearly every film of this type, the dark forces do not prevail, but sometimes I like a darker ending. What a wonderful twist ending it would have been to see Isabelle getting out of the car with the baby at the end and looking up with a smile as Larissa looks down from Isabelle's bedroom window as Isabelle goes inside the house with Matt and her new baby. Isabelle could have easily entered Larissa's body in that one minute and once she was inside and Larissa's spirit would have been drawn into Isabelle's body.
I would love to find a copy of the screenplay and read it for myself. -
alessandropellegrino8 January 2020A nice film that has a very interesting plot but ruined by a poorly made script and that ruins the film a bit, however a film that can be seen and that still manages to put suspense
-
jmbovan-47-16017323 February 2020Let's see: misery, psychosis, possession, exorcism. All on a nice suburban street. Go figure.
-
serenab-0834211 February 2020What a crap film! Don't waste your time like I did on this. Story unoriginal, acting underwhelming and effects cheap as hell, no pun intended! I barely made it to the end. Nothing new or interesting to see here.