Director: Dominic James
Year: 2016
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: Wait Till Helen Comes
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Moving to a new house in the countryside, a blended family attempting to heal their wounds together finds that their youngest daughter has taken up a friendship with a girl who supposedly died years ago and forces the oldest daughter to break the spirit’s hold over her to save the family.
Review:
This one wasn’t all that bad of an effort for the channel. One of the more engaging aspects here is the rather fun job this does with building up the idea of the ghostly friendship that develops throughout here. These are far more intense than expected here as the first half gives this quite a solid set-up to start in on the ghost appearing to them, letting the first half then be filled with some rather enjoyable elements featuring the slowly-emerging cause of her befriending the ghost. Due to the film going for this slow-burn feeling of the revelation that comes about from her being slowly brought into the ghosts’ control, together with the intriguing scenes of the flock of birds always seen to be congregating over their house or the girls' fascination with the spot in the woods where she plays that tends to freak out her sister, alongside a nice burgeoning mystery about the children's disapperances around town they become involved in which give this a lot to really like.
Once it moves into the buildup and goes into actual supernatural antics, this one picks up and becomes incredibly fun. With this one delving into the fine buildup about the ghost girl and her intentions early on, the later half pays off these scenes rather nicely with the scenes painting her as a troubled, miscreant youth with these supernatural scenes playing up the possibility that she could potentially be doing it herself instead of the ghost so that the scenes of the swarming insects in the house or the fantastic revelations made that solve the mystery once and for all. That in turn leads to the thrilling finale where it finally plays off these issues in grand style not only with the flashback but also the present-time action which are all woven together rather well. These scenes, featuring the recreations of the original tragedy with the house on fire and their little girl getting involved which proves to be futile that play out with the two modern-day participants brings about some solid suspense here which gets equal play with the ghostly final revelation involving skeletal remains which adds a creepy touch to the film which ends this on a high note.
The cast here isn't awful but definitely not as good as it could've been. Sophie Nélisse is decent as the lead Molly, who plays out troubled angsty teenager quite well and doesn't do much else here. It's really not her fault she has nothing else to do beyond tearing up when her parents don't believe her constantly which is an annoying habit, but her genuine chemistry with her sister creates some enjoyable bonding and tension in the final half. Her real-life sister Isabelle plays her step-sister Heather in this one, and she's quite one-note throughout here. All she really does is tend to be withdrawn and quiet which isn't all that appealing when it's all she does, and there's not much else for her to go which is a real shame. Basically keeping everything to a minimum requirement of dialog and spending the whole time conversing with the ghosts which doesn't really do much else for this one to get her sister onto her side which would've helped considerably. Liekwise, the parents Jean and Dave, played by Maria Bella and Callum Keith Rennie respectively, are sadly absent for the majority of the film with the kids taking centerstage which means all they do is capably perform the unfair parental figure that never listens to the truth. Nothing roles in the grandest sense, but again it's fun to see them involved as much as they are. These here help to build this one up pretty decently.
There are a few flaws present. As is to be expected from the channel's output, there are large sections of the film that really aren't that enjoyable for hardcore horror fans. Due to needing to keep the entire affair as family-friendly as possible, this one really struggles at times to be a horror film with the constant need to quit the building of suspense in order to keep the more appropriate forms of drama intact. Rather than engage with a rather intriguing and enjoyable ghost story about the house and it's effects on the family, this one tends to go more into the teenage daughter's rightful annoyance and aggravation at the living predicament which isn't interesting, enjoyable or creative. It adds a drama-like feel to this one that undercuts a lot of the tension and suspense being built up which is a disappointment. As well, that also means that there's just not a whole lot of intense or truly thrilling moments this one could've had by keeping it censored and restricted for as much as it does, which isn't as detrimental but does hold it back somewhat.
Overview: ** 1/2/5
Despite a few missteps here which aren't all that interesting and hold this down somewhat, there's enough to like here to make it quite appealing if you're into these kinds of efforts. Give this a shot if you're into the Lifetime channel offerings or go for these tamer, light-hearted ghost affairs while those unwilling to dive into these should heed caution.
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