Director: Steven M. Smith
Year: 2018
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Haunted 3: A Time to Die
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Returning to the special farmhouse, the team comes back together to continue their investigations one more time so that they can figure out what went wrong in the previous session, only to find that the supernatural activity that had haunted them before continues targeting them.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent, if generally problematic, genre effort. As has been the tradition of the other entries in the series, this one works incredibly well with getting the setup to the film established so that the different interactions that come have a solid grounding here. With the film being a direct continuation of what went on in the previous entry, with their personal issues preventing them from finishing and being forced to come back the next day to finish when cooler heads have prevailed, this makes good on that interaction and offers the group getting back together to finish their mission. Featuring a recap of the events that took place at the location over the years to explain the haunted history of what happened that brought them to the farm in the first place, there’s some solid work here at getting this going so that the second half when they try again and go about getting their investigative work started in the form of seances, EVP sessions, or just general scenes involving them going around trying to witness something unnatural happening.
However, once again, the main flaw arises here, where it’s all so devoid of action that it feels far more lifeless than it really should. Since it continues the series-long plight of featuring the team’s behind-the-scenes conversations and preparations about what goes on in the course of trying to prepare the scene for the show or go through the various devices needed for the particular sequence, this creates some fun conversations at points but also means that the film’s running time is so light on haunts and scares that it feels much longer than it is. There are way too many instances where the encounters are stuck in a rather short series of pretty dull scenes, being more involved in listening to thudding noises in the distance or closing doors that aren’t as impactful as the scenes from the previous entries that take centerstage here, that it even means that the finale is rather underwhelming as well since it’s a frenetic, fast-paced sequence that comes out of nowhere with little build-up. As a whole, these all come together to hold this down.
Overview: **.5/5
An overall watchable if still problematic entry in the series, there are some worthwhile elements with this one that manage to make this a solid enough genre outing that gets overwhelmed by the drawbacks on display. Those with an interest in this style of genre fare or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment