Director: Brandon McLemore
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
While trying to move into a new house, a woman and her brothers discover a series of strange supernatural phenomena that are haunting the house after taking it over, and when they're forced to call a paranormal investigative team to contain it brings about dark secrets that threaten everyone.
Review:
Overall, this was a rather fun if overly familiar haunted house tale. Among the better features present here is the highly enjoyable setup that allows this one to run through the usual gamut of tropes to be found in this type of film. Starting with the ever-popular setup of a family moving into a new house in a community that believes it to be haunted after a series of accidents years before which leads to general apathy on their neighbors to get involved and a sense of growing hostility toward each other the longer they live unknowingly in the house, the setup here is wholly familiar but immensely effective at getting the necessary points across. With the usual trappings on display here in the way the family interacts with each other before being influenced by the house against the treatment once they get used to living in the particular house, the setup here is workable enough for the type of film being presented.
That leaves the film to rely quite heavily on the strength of the hauntings to be more substantial. These far much better than the rather perfunctory storylines in place as the house is suitably unnerving and chilling in design long before the ravenous antics start in, offering a fine balance to the proceedings as it switches between shadowy figures in the background or maniacal scratching in the walls. These tactics are repeated often enough in the first half that there's quite a lot to like about the approach this takes towards enacting the idea of these forces carrying a specific demonic influence over the family and turning them into the kind of stressed-out individuals seen later on. Basing everything on the house being this haunted that the paranormal investigator is required to fight them off leading to some fun to be had in the final half here, there are some likable enough features that keep this one going.
There are some features here that bring this one down. The biggest and most obvious factor here is the generally unnecessary running time that brings about way too much unneeded padding for a story that's overly familiar. Relying on the family living in the house while being overtly aware of what's going on as the film is way too good at providing the supernatural exploits that the family stupidly stays in danger which is repeated so often that this one runs on way too long at bordering two hours that didn't really need to be. As well, with so much of this one running through the familiar ground or just playing homage to previous films in this style that could've been removed that it all is so unnecessary that the film becomes a slough to get through and undoes quite a lot of the goodwill established by the other factors. It's not completely unnecessary but is enough to bring this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
A formulaic but still somewhat likable genre effort, this one is undone by enough features to bring it down from what it could've been as the positives are somewhat impactful if still overwhelmed. Those who are intrigued by the concept or aren't that bothered by the flaws here will find it the most enjoyable while most others out there should heed caution with this one.
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