Director: Tony Reames
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
After a series of disappearances, a paranormal researcher decides to check out a supposedly haunted house in the area to debunk rumors about it being haunted by a demented local surgeon who lived there, and when she finds a fellow investigator there both try to look into the house’s haunted nature.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly fun and enjoyable indie effort. Among its better elements is the rather fun if formulaic setup here that presents this with all the necessary features to be quite likable. Offering the kind of starting point here with the backstory of the town and the doctor’s handiwork that serves as enough motivation to get the kids to believe its reputation as well as bring her out to the town to investigate, the early stages of this start off well enough to establish this for a pretty decent grounding. When it brings up the local investigator that she teams up with who’s also got her own agenda and reasoning for being there, the clash of styles and personalities at the beginning manages to create a contrasting approach to the investigation which makes for a solid enough time here.
With the setup established and the girls working together with their own tactics and techniques, the slow-burgeoning build to the haunted nature of the house comes across just as well as their clashing personalities bring about their resentful nature towards the other. Spending time trying to one-up or debunk the other’s techniques leads to an equally solid measure of encounters that range from the objects moving in the distance to voices whispering on their equipment, or the encounter when one of them is left alone in the house trying to sleep but is soon confronted by a demonic force preventing her from doing that. With the revelation about the doll that keeps reappearing and how it all leads into some great chases and encounters in the final half where there’s quite a lot to like involving the revelations that come about and the different investigations being carried out that make this one immensely fun at points.
There are some drawbacks to be had with this one. The main issue here is the generally sluggish pace that keeps this one barely moving along despite the brief running time. The idea of the two being at odds with each other over preferences, approaches, and tactics makes for a great idea, but it just makes for a rather lengthy amount of time before it starts going anywhere as we’re trying to establish the bond that they eventually grow into throughout the film. This ends up making it loaded on the backend with action and encounters that happen here at the expense of the first half doing more setup than anything else as it’s quite haphazard with how it’s staged. The other issue here is how scattered the storyline is without focusing on the haunted investigation, introducing several other paranormal phenomena in the town to suddenly get involved in the film for no reason other than to have something else to do so it’s somewhat unnecessary to have all these extra features in a haunted house story. Otherwise, this wasn’t that bad overall.
Overview: ***/5
A solid and enjoyable indie effort that manages to keep it going, there’s a lot of solid factors to be had with this one that keep it solid enough for what it was trying to do. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of this style of indie genre fare or are curious about it, while most others out there who don’t appreciate those factors should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment