Director: Dustin Ferguson
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
Placed in a rural community, a house supposedly housing the spirit of a malicious witch accused of killing and eating children becomes the site of various grisly and supernatural incidents throughout the years, forcing a group of friends to come together to stop the curse from continuing.
Review:
Overall, this one was an enjoyable enough effort. One of the film’s best features are the opening flashbacks detailing the origins of the witch’s curse. Not only is the storyline setup here quite chilling and a reasonable small-town backstory about the witch living in the area and attacking children, the scenes recreating these events told through silent, green-tinted scenes as well as the skeletal remains discovered offer up a lot to like. This gets the film going on a nice note with an immediate and creepy supernatural explanation.
That this then builds to a series of fun and chilling encounters within the house. Going from the kids’ game of hide-and-seek where they find one trapped in a closet before chased off by demonic voices or the rock band crashing there for the night who get killed off using their own instruments have some solid suspense mixed together with some gruesome indie-flavored kills. As well, the attacks on the ravers who are tricked into killing themselves are immensely clever and quite well-realized, making for a chilling segment with how it plays out.
The last segments here are quite fun, featuring the lost couple who get stranded at night and find themselves forced to stay there or the group of friends who gather in the present to stop the curse, offering up plenty to like. The suspense of the couple alone in the eerie house by themselves while coming under the curses’ influence creates some great ideas at play, while the sudden shock ambushes on the friends leads to some chilling moments. Combined with a unique format here, this one has a lot to like that holds it up.
There wasn’t a whole lot to dislike here, and what’s there isn’t too detrimental anyway. The films’ biggest problem is the film’s abandoning of the traditional haunted house formula to tell the story of various random people encountering the house at various points in time and getting killed off. This can make for a jarring and somewhat chaotic storyline here where the shift to random characters and events can feel like unrelated segments slapped together with no coherent through-line. With its indie tone and feel coming through clearly, these can hold this one back.
Overview: ***/5
A rather enjoyable effort that tries to do something different and unique with the haunted house formula, that this one seems to be let down by incidental means is quite an accomplishment. Give this a look if you’re a fan of the genre, intrigued by the story or of the creative crew while those who don’t appreciate these indie-style efforts should heed mild caution.
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