Director: Jaume Balagueró
Year: 2002
Country: US/Spain
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Moving with her family to Spain, a teen and her family believe the series of weird occurrences there are the result of the ghosts of children killed in the house for a deadly ceremony and must prevent it from happening again to her family.
Review:
Overall this one turned out enjoyable if slightly flawed. This one really manages to work quite well at building a pretty noteworthy atmosphere here by really going for a subdued approach to the haunting found within here, which range from the innocent to the subtle. While initially starting with the innocent fare of the discovery of the pictures and the drawings, or the subtle versions of ideas from the father's freak-outs and behavior around the family, the constantly flickering lights and the obsession over the beings under his bed all might seem like non-entities there's a great build-up throughout the first half which sets up the latter half of this one nicely. That gives the second half much more to work with as the investigation into the original traumatic incident and the ghostly visions of the children around the house manage to really ramp up the action and pacing even more for the finale. There are some good times here as this section features the battle to get the father under control during one of his freak-outs while setting up the chilling walk-through of the house in complete darkness while surrounded by the ghosts and their temptation tricks that make this one quite fun.
The cast here is quite worthwhile and manages to make this one a little more enjoyable. Anna Paquin is rather charming as Regina, the lead. She manages to go rather nicely between concerned and terrified as the story goes along while the finale puts her into the prototypical final girl routine which lowers her slightly, but the overall sense of comfort she displays towards her younger brother is a fine trait to help us root her on. Lena Olin does similar nice work as Maria the mother. Again, she falls somewhat into the one-note presence with her main mark being worrying about her family but she has a nice weight to her scenes and overall it's not too bad a performance. Her husband Mark, played by Iain Glen, is one of the few bland spots here with a truly one-note performance. Blankly staring around at any and all accusations put forth in front of him and then yelling about the audacity to mention it in front of him which just really grates on the nerves. The Italian legend Giancarlo Giannini is another bright spot as Albert Rua who knows more than he lets on. The kindly grandfather type he initially displays is wiped away by the revelations made against him which turns this around nicely. The rest of the cast isn't too bad here.
Even as much good as this becomes, this section here really highlights the flaws present in the film. Among the biggest here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of action here, as the film is decidedly against the supernatural to prove the point of its haunting back-story. This one here is instead more like a drama by focusing on the idea that something's happening rather than do anything about it which simply makes this one go by without anything of any real interest throughout here. Not only is this section not filled with action but it's also part of the really low-key and dragging pace that doesn't offer up a whole lot of energy that doesn't move the plot along any better. These here are quite problematic here as they give this quite a dull pace without much of a true horror film here to start this one off which makes this problematic. The other real flaw to this one here is the utterly haphazard finale, not only filled with wretched editing during the action scenes but filled with cliché moments and action here that feels pretty common and not that original which really makes for some troubling times here in this section. These here are the film's biggest issues that hold it down.
Overview: ***/5
Frankly, there's not too much really wrong here to hold this one down although it's still not the greatest effort or example of this genre altogether. This one is mainly for the more undiscerning fans of ghost movies or those who might enjoy the creative side of the table while those looking for more substantial work should heed caution with this one.
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