Director: Chris Kentis, Laura Lau
Year: 2011
Country: USA/France
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
Arriving to clean up a remote house, a woman and her father find themselves experiencing enough strange incidents to believe they're being stalked by ghostly figures and voices throughout the house as they attempt to escape and try to find the cause of the incidents before they get worse.
Review:
This was a pretty disappointing and barely decent entry here. What really gets this one going for the most part is the fact that there's an admittedly decent and enjoyable mystery here in the first half about what is actually happening in the house with the group, as this one really banks on mysterious noises, creepy shots of people walking in the background just out of viewpoint and the fun of disappearing bodies that seem to move about on their own that really makes for quite a fun time here as the disorienting reality this sets up is wholly appealing and thrilling.
Many of these early scenes come off the best as there's just no shortage of fun, thrilling moments as her attempts to elude the stalking figure in the background and the rather strong manner in which the film builds this up through the single-take gimmick where it really feels like an escalation of the stalking as the figure gets closer and closer and her efforts are all in vain as there's the attacks on her father and uncle that cause this one to really get stronger with some even better scenes in here.
Still, there are some pretty big flaws here, as there are way too many flaws here that are detrimental, and one even cripples it outright. The most crippling part here is indeed the finale twist, which is plainly obvious, twists around the action already featured for no reason, and comes off as wholly unappealing here, as the drop-off from the ghostly haunting into the type of more human-like twist employed here doesn't do the film any favors and just appears as a way to fool the audience.
As well, the fact that this all appears as one continuous take doesn't make for anything all that interesting as being forced to employ the same type of scares throughout here as this one can only employ those specific type of set-ups with the central gimmick in play makes for quite a bland time here as all the shots are the same blurred and out-of-focus scenes that are brought up here. As well, the other flaw here is the fact that this one never really manages to put into light why there was a haunting in the first place, as this one easily could've been ignored had there been something about what's going on instead of continually throwing her family back into danger. These big flaws here bring this one down significantly.
Overview: *.5/5
An unappealing and barely worthwhile remake, there are a lot of issues here that keep this one from being enjoyable or worthwhile, despite the few slight positives found here. Those with an appreciation of what’s going on in this type of story or who are more undiscerning fans of found-footage will have the most to like here, while most others should heed extreme caution with this one.
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