Director: Melissa LaMartina
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Haunted House; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Followed by a film crew, a slick sales rep becomes desperate to move the property, rumored to be too haunted to sell, which her colleagues have been unable to move, eventually finding the rumors true when it starts forcing the tenants out and forcing her to solve how to do this.
Review:
Overall, this was a massively likable and fun genre comedy. Among the better elements here is the idea of the film taking this ridiculous idea seriously while focusing on the outlandish and absurd content in that concept. The fact that we get such an intense look at her skills and experience with the whole thing, focusing on the history of dealing with haunted properties and how successful she is at scamming the system by taking the various houses as a challenge to understand the demonic entity housing inside and bringing the materials necessary to cleanse it, gets this off to a great start. This is accomplished with numerous walkthroughs and scenarios involving her trying to get into the mindset of someone able to utilize supernatural tricks to her advantage, with the way she undermines genuinely haunted houses to get a better listing and price for prospective buyers. That kind of relationship results in some rather hysterical moments as the reactions to such scenarios and the generally under-the-radar comments about how accepting of the supernatural she is, despite it being treated with the same skepticism most people would in the situation, give this a lot of great comedy.
There are also attempts at being a genuine genre effort, which comes about with some effective means of integration into the story. The showings for the haunted houses that take place here, with the different interactions and manipulations of objects that are downplayed during the showing to not upset the potential buyers, is a fine touch to give this some comedy alongside the genuinely chilling idea of the sequence, should it be given in a more straightforward feature. The multitude of different showings here provide some great interactions that set the stage for the great finale, where they try to pull off a series of impressive tactics to exorcise the one tenant in some generally enjoyable and likable setpieces around the house that are more than enough to give this a lot to like. The main drawback is the fact that, since it goes for the joke more often than anything and very rarely deviates from the style of lighthearted interactions, there are very little stakes at play, where everything just feels like a series of extended, unrelated sketches and skits that have a semblance of a story connecting everything, so that is a bit underwhelming at points. That, though, is the main drawback on display.
Overview: ***.5/5
A rather enjoyable and cheesy genre comedy, this one comes together far better than expected and has quite a lot to like, which is let down only slightly by some slight drawbacks. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare or who are fans of the style here will be the most likely to enjoy this one the most, while most others out there should heed caution.
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