SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling
CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
fedor8 The set-up isn't bad, but the "grand finale" takes a shovel-full of dung and hurls it straight into the viewers' faces. I've seen many ghost flicks with dumb and/or illogical ghosts, but this she-ghost is the stupidest slag of them all. This particular she-ghost has no qualms whatsoever about brutally slaying innocent adolescents and children – but does spare the life of the woman who slit her throat! How's that for stupid, huh?Not only does she-ghost kill everyone in the woman's family – except the woman who murdered her – but she also kills the 18 year-old kid who never did anything to her. Are we to believe that all haunting ghosts get free lobotomies before entering the netherworld of ghost-haunting? Do people's IQs drop by 50 points after they enter the realm of the spirit world? That must be the case, at least according to the lazy, illogical clown who wrote this messy script. OK, fine, nobody's ever offered actual studies of average IQs of any spirit world (Jewish, Islamic or Christian), but if they're all as dumb as zombies, then spirits are nothing more than mindless animals going for the kill. What's interesting about that? They might as well then make yet another film about killer bees or killer bunnies.We've been programmed and trained by bad horror film-makers since our adolescence to accept that ghosts should be irrational and stupid. But why? Handing out low IQs to ghosts just serves to make them suitable for comedy. Perhaps they could have added a few gags here and there, and made a comedy horror. It would have been unfunny, as nearly all horror spoofs are, but at least that approach makes some sense.
Paul Magne Haakonsen If you are looking for a spooky movie then "Haunt" is not really the best of choices. It has a mediocre storyline and some fairly cheap scare tricks going on.A family has moved into a new house where mysterious things are going one. And when the teenagers have a séance they get in touch with something inside the house.It is a mediocre storyline that initially did seem okay, but it just lacked proper scary atmosphere and spooky moments. And whenever they did attempt to scare the audience by showing a haunt or apparition, they usually made use of a lousy out of focus effect with the camera. I guess that it is an easy way to glance past perhaps a lack of great effects or make-up?The acting in "Haunt" was okay, although the cast were extremely limited by the script and the storyline."Haunt" did have potential to be a good horror movie, but director Mac Carter couldn't bring the ship safely into harbor, so to speak.All in all, an average movie experience, but a weak horror experience. As such, "Haunt" fails to haunt the audience and scores a mere five out of ten stars from me.
Peter Pluymers "So you want to hear a ghost story? Well, every ghost story begins with a house... and a tragedy. And so we begin with mine."The beginning really feels creepy. The rest of the film looks typical. Just another haunted-house topic with a whole range of already used elements from similar films. For the real horror fanatics it's nothing new or surprising. Expect creaking doors, manifesting entities , scary sounds behind every door and in every corner, looming shadows and sudden scares. This film contains them all and therefore looks like a hodgepodge of already used ideas. Except for that impression-making start wherein an original device is proposed : an old-fashioned looking device composed of transistors and radio lamps that can be used to communicate with the deceased. The tormented and desperate person who wants to use it to get in touch with his children, soon will experience the consequences. They are less pleasant than he had expected.The Asher family moves into an old house of which there are rumors that it's haunted. The Morello family who lived there previously, was decimated cruelly. The only survivor was the matriarch Janet Morello (Jacki Weaver) who shows up while the Ashers are moving in, saying that she forgot to take something with her. During her brief visit she talks to Evan (Harrison Gilbertson), the son of the family Asher, telling him that her son died when he was Evan's age and that the attic was his bedroom. The moment Evan meets the rebellious teenage girl Sam (Liana Liberato) during a nighttime walk, a close friendship grows in between them. Before he realizes it, Sam snuggles into his bed at night. After a while they start to experiment with the strange device that they found (the one you saw in the opening scene) in a side room in the attic (actually Sam knew it was there anyway). A dangerous game that opens the door for not so friendly ghosts.Ghost stories with an old, possessed house as a central subject, is an eagerly used topic in the horror genre. Think of "The Conjuring", "The Woman in Black", "The Amityville Horror" or "Poltergeist" and you know what to expect. The old clichés aren't shunned. Every time there's an appearance, lights start to flicker again (in the same way as you saw in "Deliver us from Evil") There's even an entity that looks as if it came straight out of the movie "The Ring". And events from the past are shown in a creepy way in black and white. Unfortunately there are also the ridiculous-looking clichés. Like the fact that the new family happens to have the same composition of family as the previous unfortunate family. Despite terrifying apparitions and confrontations, everyone just continues as if this is the most normal thing in the world. Even worrying gibberish of the youngest daughter ("If there's really a ghost in Evan's room, l think he should make friends with it.") doesn't bother anyone. And of course at that time the parents leave the entire household behind, so they can visit a few colleagues.Despite the obvious events, apparitions and paranormal states, I was still a bit surprised by the final denouement. Visually and in of atmosphere they could have created a really eerie and creepy film. The ghost part isn't so bad because they are surely scary at times. But the storyline is certainly not that exciting. And the performances are pretty one-dimensional. Parents are more absent than present, the older daughter was totally unnecessary and the younger sister lived in her own world. Gilbertson and Liberato formed a sympathetic couple but Gilbertson's naivety is hugely irritating. I enjoy an old-fashioned ghost story once and a while. Such a film that gives you the chills at times. The only chills I got while watching "Haunt", were those of the cold because of an open window in the middle of the night.More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT
katies803 A happy family of 5 (mom and dad, older sis, middle bro (protagonist), little sis) move into a creepy new house. The previous occupants apparently met with some tragic endings, the sole survivor being the mother who can't stand the place anymore. The son goes for a walk and runs into the neighbor, a teenage girl with more than a few problems of her own. They hit it off and she tells him bits and pieces about the legends behind his house. After they find an old radio in a storage space and use it to commune with the other side, weird things start happening and soon it's apparent that there is something else in the house as well. This movie isn't the most terrible recent horror film I've seen by far. In fact, the first half is incredibly suspenseful and creeped me out! When the second half starts it tries to really pull you in, only to finish with an ending that leaves you wondering what the hell just happened! A lot of questions are left open to interpretation, something that is either hugely successful for a movie or else causes it to flop horrendously. As for which one this is...well, it seems everyone shares different opinions so I will let you judge for yourself. Me personally I think the story ending wanted to be good, but something just wasn't right. Other than that, this actually has the potential to be a great scary movie. It is unique though, in the sense it definitely keeps you on your toes looking for clues as to what's happened to these miserable ghosts?
