With so many ghost and haunted house films being released since The Ring (2002) was a huge hit it’s kind of easy to dismiss this “Based on Real Events” film based on the experience of a family going through the hardship of having a child with cancer who move into the perfect house that just so happens to be haunted.
If you’ve seen one American ghost story then this move will not seem like anything new…on the surface that is. This film follows all the trappings of the haunted house film – 1) a desperate family moves into a house that harbors a dark secret, 2) “shock moments” approximately every 10 minutes as if the audience really needs a “fake” shock moment to remind them of the type of movie they are watching, and 3) you think you know what’s behind the haunting until the big reveal at the end. As written by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe the film doesn’t miss a beat at it follows the conventions of all American ghost/haunting films, which makes it had to believe that anything in the film actually “really” happened.
The thing that holds the film together and actually makes it worth watching is the on screen chemistry between Virginia Madsen and Kyle Gallner as Sara and Matt Campbell (mother and son, respectively). Matt is battling cancer while Sara is his mother who is trying to be strong and keep it together not only for her son but for her other two younger children and over-worked husband (played by Martin Donovan). With lesser capable actors the film would have been derivative but these two actors play the smaller and quieter moments extremely well and give their characters a humanity that is missing from most other films of this genre.
The film has its chilling moments especially when you learn the nature of the haunting but like most modern day horror films this film suffers from its reliance to end on a big action-packed moment (which also comes off as very unlikely and unreal) and therefore looses some of the intimacy that it had created earlier. This is a small element that can be over looked in an otherwise very entertaining, yet predictable, haunted house film.
If you’ve seen one American ghost story then this move will not seem like anything new…on the surface that is. This film follows all the trappings of the haunted house film – 1) a desperate family moves into a house that harbors a dark secret, 2) “shock moments” approximately every 10 minutes as if the audience really needs a “fake” shock moment to remind them of the type of movie they are watching, and 3) you think you know what’s behind the haunting until the big reveal at the end. As written by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe the film doesn’t miss a beat at it follows the conventions of all American ghost/haunting films, which makes it had to believe that anything in the film actually “really” happened.
The thing that holds the film together and actually makes it worth watching is the on screen chemistry between Virginia Madsen and Kyle Gallner as Sara and Matt Campbell (mother and son, respectively). Matt is battling cancer while Sara is his mother who is trying to be strong and keep it together not only for her son but for her other two younger children and over-worked husband (played by Martin Donovan). With lesser capable actors the film would have been derivative but these two actors play the smaller and quieter moments extremely well and give their characters a humanity that is missing from most other films of this genre.
The film has its chilling moments especially when you learn the nature of the haunting but like most modern day horror films this film suffers from its reliance to end on a big action-packed moment (which also comes off as very unlikely and unreal) and therefore looses some of the intimacy that it had created earlier. This is a small element that can be over looked in an otherwise very entertaining, yet predictable, haunted house film.
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