Having trouble sleeping in their house, the parents of a young boy become distraught when he accidentally dies around the house, but when he stays behind to grieve a series of paranormal incidents causes him to gather a specialist and his daughter to investigate bringing them in contact with a dark supernatural presence.
This was an above-average if slightly disappointing genre effort. One of the films' biggest positives is the atmospheric touch this adds to the material that feels rather creepy. The general vibe here is of a true haunted house effort, mainly coming from the constant static and noises occurring throughout the house on any device capable of producing such sound but the other attempts to introduce the technological enhancements into their ghost-hunting practices which reveal evidence of the paranormal. These manage enough to generate a rather dark and chilling atmosphere here that plays perfectly into the finale where the ghosts are much more active, much more frequent and actually manage to become somewhat chilling in their recreations of the past events but also interacting with the group left in the house which has a lot to like for the most part. There are a few issues to be had with this one. The biggest issue affecting this one is the completely cliched and predictable setup here that follows all the usual rules and ideas usually associated with this type of film. The idea of the parents trying to figure out what's going on with their kid who's clearly disturbed by someone or something else other than what he's been telling them is going to result in the same stereotypical scenes usually featured here, from the parents yelling at the kid to behave and not understanding what's going on to showing the kid being influenced even further by the spirits in the house and the resulting strain being forced onto the parents trying to cope with everything. This resultant tragedy serves the film nicely in creating the perfect backdrop to the unease within the film but also feels quite tropey and expected as if nothing new or unique is done with the material as a whole. The general series of subplots and revelations about the ghosts' past brings nothing new here either, making them feel so expected and generic that they don't register much in the long run. Moreover, the scenes in the second half where they bring in the paranormal researchers cause more problems. Their introduction and immediate entrance into the supernatural goings-on are unbelievably rushed as a few lines of dialogue at a book-signing is enough to enter into the fray which is wholly unrealistic, while this also ends up bringing about so many ghost-hunting cliches in their search of the house it can feel like outright plagiarism at times. The scanning sequences with their devices are nearly shot-for-shot from just about every other attempt to utilize this setup, while the expected jump-scares of something running by in the background or off in the distance are telegraphed by jarring musical stings and expectant camera cuts which render the shocks ineffectual. With a glaring twist ending that changes the entire scope of what had previously, rendering everything into a huge waste of time, these issues bring the film down considerably.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence and children-in-jeopardy.
This was an above-average if slightly disappointing genre effort. One of the films' biggest positives is the atmospheric touch this adds to the material that feels rather creepy. The general vibe here is of a true haunted house effort, mainly coming from the constant static and noises occurring throughout the house on any device capable of producing such sound but the other attempts to introduce the technological enhancements into their ghost-hunting practices which reveal evidence of the paranormal. These manage enough to generate a rather dark and chilling atmosphere here that plays perfectly into the finale where the ghosts are much more active, much more frequent and actually manage to become somewhat chilling in their recreations of the past events but also interacting with the group left in the house which has a lot to like for the most part. There are a few issues to be had with this one. The biggest issue affecting this one is the completely cliched and predictable setup here that follows all the usual rules and ideas usually associated with this type of film. The idea of the parents trying to figure out what's going on with their kid who's clearly disturbed by someone or something else other than what he's been telling them is going to result in the same stereotypical scenes usually featured here, from the parents yelling at the kid to behave and not understanding what's going on to showing the kid being influenced even further by the spirits in the house and the resulting strain being forced onto the parents trying to cope with everything. This resultant tragedy serves the film nicely in creating the perfect backdrop to the unease within the film but also feels quite tropey and expected as if nothing new or unique is done with the material as a whole. The general series of subplots and revelations about the ghosts' past brings nothing new here either, making them feel so expected and generic that they don't register much in the long run. Moreover, the scenes in the second half where they bring in the paranormal researchers cause more problems. Their introduction and immediate entrance into the supernatural goings-on are unbelievably rushed as a few lines of dialogue at a book-signing is enough to enter into the fray which is wholly unrealistic, while this also ends up bringing about so many ghost-hunting cliches in their search of the house it can feel like outright plagiarism at times. The scanning sequences with their devices are nearly shot-for-shot from just about every other attempt to utilize this setup, while the expected jump-scares of something running by in the background or off in the distance are telegraphed by jarring musical stings and expectant camera cuts which render the shocks ineffectual. With a glaring twist ending that changes the entire scope of what had previously, rendering everything into a huge waste of time, these issues bring the film down considerably.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence and children-in-jeopardy.