lennieh

All of the the other reviews here confuse this film with the 1991 film of the same name.

THAT film stars Sally Kirkland and Ariauna Albright IS NOT in it.

Use the search bar and type in The Haunted 1991 and you will find the movie these reviews are talking about.

Despite all the bad reviews and ridicule listed here, this is not a bad film. Far from it.

I single out for special mention the performance of Zach Clifford, who leads the cast well.

His portrayal of a PTSD suffering American communications expert stationed in the UK to monitor German broadcasts in the channel for the first hour of the film leaves you wondering if there is an actual haunting or if he is breaking down into delusion and shock.

The research in to the hauntings at Borley is spot on, as is the research in to the methods and character of famed sceptic and parapsychologist Harry Price.

All in all, a pleasant enough way to spend an hour and a half.

The Running Man meets Turkey Shoot in this dystopian battle royal.

Ryan Bellgardt does his usual bang on job of mixing excitement and action science fiction monster movie to give us a world were execution is public entertainment, ultra capitalism rules all and people have degenerated in to soulless monsters living only for the next thrill.

This film is far better than it has any right to be considering the budget and resources available, with great characters, a terrific script and more than adequate special effect.

The only thing that stops me giving it ten out of ten is that it is about twenty minutes too short.

The 1945 classic version of Noel Cowards Blithe spirit, is simply the play filmed with a couple of added outdoor shots.

This version is a film adaptation of the story, with some expansion upon the characters that is actually closer to the original play than 1945's version was.

For Example Margaret Rutherford who was a practicing spiritualist refused to play Madame Arcati as the scheming fraud Coward wrote her as, and was obliged by the studio to rewrite the character as a genuine but inept medium. More suited to Rutherford's excellent performance.

In this new version Madame Arcarti is give a more sympathetic back story, but is none the less a fraud, until she stumbles upon her actual powers serendipitously.

There are changes made to the ending to fit more with the 1945 version than the play, but it is forgivable and pays an homage to "Death Becomes Her"

In Search of Lovecraft, is the sort of film you sit through thinking "if they had had some money this could have been really good." The story is actually very Lovecraftian, the steady build from the mundane to the terrifying, the slow reveal of more and more mysterious threads that come together for a unexpected reveal.

There is a long section three quarters of the way in to the film that is ripped off from "The Devil rides out" but it is forgivable.

The writer director should have brought in a competent co writer to polish his script, and as a director should have told the actors to stop improvising.

At times the cinematograph is good, but rarely raises above adequate mainly because it cannot make up its mind if it is a found footage film or not.

A good musical score would have helped too.

Take the story, recast it, foreshadow the conspiracy a little and polish the script and this could have been a really good film.

James Cullen Bressack' 13/13/13 is a love letter to George Romero. Combining elements from "Night of the Living Dead" 1968 with "The Crazies" 1973 the story is intriguing and the cinematography reminiscent of The Last Man on Earth (1964) showing an inspiration from American international, works well.

Of course as is usual with Asylum picture there are a couple of over long and very wordy interactions that simply act as padding, such as the exposition heavy scene between, Jack and Candice in the hospital room and the over long car park scene where the three thugs effectively kill one another while trying to tempt Jack out.

On the whole if you can suspend the weight of disbelief this is a promising film that could bear a decent remake.

Take the basic plot line of "Total Reality" 1997 mixed with "Quantum leap" 1989, splash in a gimmicks and verbatim copied scenes from "Tracers" 1984 and a parody soundtrack from "Torchwood" 2006. Set the whole thing in Canada and voila you have "Travellers" Derivative and boring, bad direction, mumbled dialogue don't help. I would not bother if you are a Sci-Fi fan, you will have seen it all before.

Take the basic premise of Death Note, gender swap it, race swap it and replace Ryuk with Satan and you have the premise of Devil's Diary. Then throw in the Director of Lawn mower man 2 and the director of Wish master 4 and you have a very watchable Schlock horror fun fest. Just when you think you have a handle on this film it kills off another character and launches in a new direction, but the story and the secrets unfold at a satisfying rate keeping your interest as each subsequent owner descends in to evil and madness. The cursed book is the main character of the film populated by abominable characters none of who you would not be more than happy to see dead.

The title of the film does it no favours, as it is too reminiscent of the disappointing 1984 horror comedy "Bloodbath at the House of Death". However the presence Ian McNeice was enough to persuade me that the film was worth a look. McNiece doing his best Niall McGuinness impersonation enthralls with his straight to camera welcome, and pondering philosophy is both disconcerting and disturbing, beginning the slow reveal to the end of film twist. As "The Architect" our host first proudly reads us the diary of a former caretaker of his house who decentered in to madness owing to a growing obsession with the ghost of the grey lady who supposedly walks the halls of the house forever seeking her lost love and repentance for her suicide, as he envies the victims of the blitz exploding far away in London, but which he imagines all about him. Over tea, the architects relates the story of a young couple who inherited the house from an Eisoptrophobic uncle, who as a condition of the legacy insists no mirrors be ever brought in to the house, as it turns out for good reason. Far and away the highlight of the film is the third story, which could truly have been the entire film. A young student takes up residence in the house to work on his scientific studies in the year 1888. The local Vicar warns him that the village is a cursed place the house especially so, terrorised by a ravening beast of the night , that feed for the previous year of the villagers, until it was trapped and mortally wounded in the last days of the winter. In the Local Tavern "The Slaughtered wolf" the Priests words prove true as the locals warn of how strangers are not welcome, because when strangers arrive evil follows and the beast goes abroad. In the following day the young man becomes aware of a wretched vagrant moving about the lanes outside of the house, and taking pity on him follows the unfortunate man to an abandoned crypt, where he has made a home for himself, surviving on scraps and warmth from candles. The youngster and the man become friends and the student exchanges food for company and stories of history, nursing him back to health so that he made leave the village and start a new life in one of the great cities. However when the killings begin again the student begins to believe he made a terrible mistake. The twist to the third tale is both horrible and disturbing, a tale not as it seems of a supernatural monster, but of something far far worse.

The last story of the conversion of the house to a motel in the modern day is a simple demonic possession story and is probably the weakest of the tales.

The architect then thanks his audience for their rapt attention and we for the first time see who they are. They are the victims from his stories and the residents of the hotel, who have served as inspiration for both his stories and for his crimes , as we are shown again the same deaths we have seen in the tales, but carried out simply and efficiently by the architect himself around the house and the building work being carried on there.

The film fails only because of a lack strong direction and low production values. The over flowery dialogue, though this is obviously supposed to be the poor writing style of the architect himself, cannot really be excused since we have been given no reason to know that.

The dedication to Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the end credits is a nice touch and shows the loved that went in to creating the movie.

My suggestions, rewrite and expand it, change the title and sell it as a TV series, and it would be a hit.

Lacking all the charm of its film and TV predecessors, this hackneyed attempt at remake seems to have been put together by a team who once glanced at the books on a library shelf after being offered a large paycheck. Filled with anachronisms, and dislikeable characters who bare little or no relation to their literary counterparts other than their names. A most disagreeable disappointment to watch, that only succeeded in sending me back to the novels and the joy of the original film (1975) with its Stella cast and charming script

I'll be honest episode 1 the pilot episode utterly sucked, with cringe worthy story and awful performances. HOWEVER the entire cast and crew seem to have been sent away to watch the original Miranda series before starting on episode 2 and it shows. So much better, much funnier and Mayim Bialik gets to sing, which is always a treat. Leslie Jordan is already breaking out as the best character and is as funny as ever he was. Do yourself a favour and start at episode 2

Where to start? Terrible 1960's style parody animation, Scooby Doo parody characters, bad graphic design and titles...The story, such as it is, has been done better a dozen times before, the music is terrible and the "psychedelic" effects look like they were done by a five year old, throwing oil on a puddle and a supposed master sorcerer mispronouncing Ouroboros is unforgivable and then... OH boy... and then Peter Serophinorwitz doing the worst Mike Berry impersonation imaginable for the voice of the Phantom Stranger to the point where the cringe factor makes you want to chew your own ears off! Serophinorwitz is awful at the best of times but here, he really abuses the privilege. All in all not what you would expect from Bruce Timm unless he is deliberately trying to wreck his own career.

Yes this film has no budget Yes it is obviously rushed Yes at times the editing is appalling and Yes everyone is trying really hard against time and monetary constraints

However The cinematography is beautiful Locations are great Story is enthralling and does leave you wondering The cast are good and emote but struggle with poor dialogue and obvious are improvising half the time, The music elevates the atmosphere in to being genuinely scary

If you can cope with that this is a very watchable film, and one I would like to see remade with a bigger budget, the same cast and director and a longer production schedule

Well "Us" does not even bother to try and hide it's derivativeness. In that the family name is Wilson. Why not credit Poe, his story William Wilson? It is in the public domain after all. When Basil Dearden wrote "The Case of Mr. Pelham" he at least credited Poe in his acknowledgement, Paul Makin credited he was parodying Poe in the Episode of Nightingales, Someone to Watch Over Me, which sees three security guards haunted by Doppelgangers seen only on their CCTV cameras, however Jordan Peele seems to feel himself above such things.

They may as well have made a sequel where Moses fights his way out of Egypt with a light saber and Scooby Doo captaining a star ship shaped like the sphinx.

For three centuries past scientists, historians and Egyptologists have devoted their lives and intellects to uncovering the splendor the myths and legends of Ancient Egypt. All to come to THIS atrocity. Ignore the history of the ancient society, ignore the mythology, ignore the morality tales and turn the whole thing in to an ugly, slap bang, poor cgi fest, failure of an action movie that is so inaccurate and cringe worth it is literally painful to watch or hear.

This simply makes me sad

If you want to have fun for an hour and a half, play spot the Easter egg, for both franchises and wallow in nostalgia, this is the film for you. Aimed squarely at Scooby fans and Brave and the Bold TV series fans, an ardent Batman aficionado will hate this, but kids and the young at heart, who long for a return of the silver age caped crusader will be in seventh heaven. I'll admit seeing Velma, out Carrie Kelley-ing Carrie Kelley, and take up the mantel of Robin was a high point, as was her character being allowed to shine in this story and NOT seeing Daphne be the damsel in distress with that role falling to Aquaman of all people was pretty amusing. The Villain too is fun, though it is telegraphed way in advance who and what it is, though the red herrings as to his identity are all call backs and Easter eggs, some very (amazingly) obscure and unexpected.

Okay I have been a death note fan for years, it was the first manga I ever read and the first Anime (if you don't count Marine Boy) I ever saw and started my passionate love of Japanese cinema, print media and TV.

For years there has been talk of a Death Note live action western remake and I have dreaded it. From the nightmare of a Zac Efron film, to any number of other terrible ideas and rumours.

Then came the truth that there was to be a Netflix TV movie.

Now we have had the Anime, the three Japanese live action films, the Japanese TV series, the relight re-cuts and so on and so forth.

I really did not think they could do something new with another adaptation, and then I saw Willem Dafoe was going to play Ryuk and I knew whoever was helming this, KNEW what they were doing.

special shout outs to Willem Dafoe Shea Whigham Paul Nakauchi

Also watch out for the subtle Easter eggs and shout outs to the earlier versions.

WARNING POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

In a touch of inspired brilliance the characters and backstories of Light and Misa are switched, with her becoming the power mad psychotic and he becoming the gullible follower.

Ryuk becomes far more sinister and downright malicious, Light's father is given a much more prominent role only L stays basically the same character, but is out of place and suffers prejudice in a right wing USA that utterly embraces Kira as a welcome god of death.

Unlike in the original were the Kira task force is reduced by fear, here the task force is reduced to one, because the Police LIKE kira and don't want him caught.

The lone liberal detective Turner is the only one to assume killing is wrong and deserves the forces of Justice.

It is on the whole a fresh twist, westernised with care, on the source material, an alternate take and culture shock variation.

To be honest I loved it.