Girl on the Third Floor

Watched this at the SXSW and did not know what to expect. Turned out to be a quite entertaining horror flick, directed by Tavis Stevens. Don Jon, an ex-con with a criminal past and some alcohol issues (a delightful performance from former WWE wrestler "CM Punk") bought a house in the Chicago suburbs for himself and his 8-month pregnant successful wife (Trieste Kelly Dunn). He wants to rebuild the house single-handedly while his wife stays in town. His efforts to renovate the house involve some really funny scenes, CM Punk has a great talent for physical humour. While working and sleeping in the house, some strange things happen, glass balls roll over the floors, eerie noises occur, a young girls shows up, trying to seduce Don Jon, and the neighbouring church's pastor seems to know more about the house than she tells. I really liked this movie, since it is a fresh mix of haunted house, horror, slasher, family drama, and comedy--and jumping back and forth between the genres plays nicely with the audience's expectations. Despite some shortcomings in the writing, the actors, and the camerawork are above average. Also the sound design was very skilful.

Girl on the Third Floor is another simple haunted house premise with a twist. Is this a great film? No, of course not. But it's damn entertaining. More than that, it's absolutely insane. The third act goes completely off the rails and it's both grotesque and glorious to watch. Horror films could use more insanity these days.

It isn't scary, which is the main drawback. You know where the story is going right from the start. The details are different enough to stand out and the gore effects are genuinely gruesome, but there's no real suspense to be built. And the tone is camp as it is, so it's hard to take anything too seriously.

Then again, why should we? It's a trashy horror movie about a guy in a weird house with a hot neighbor. Why not get crazy with it? And that's what they did, and it worked for me.

I watched this movie based on the reviews from rotten tomatoes and the good reviews here....i made a mistake.

The movie was poorly acted and scripted. I don't care as much when a character makes dumb decisions. We live in a world where people make odd choices. The interactions were cheesy because of the script and terrible acting by the main lead. He was bad, really bad. Felt like he was doing a bad Bruce Campbell impersonation.

The story itself was ok. If you can look past the acting and bad dialogue, give it a shot.

Girl On The Third Floor is the typical average horror movie. One that no-one will ever remember as the story is just too weak. It's just not that interesting to watch. Haunted houses, let's be honest it has been done before, and in this case much better. The acting wasn't terrible but with a mediocre story it will not change anything to the quality of the movie. The horror moments were also not really scary, nor disgusting if you're more into slashers. Not very impressed by this one.

Yes its another B horror flick and somewhat predictable, but I was drawn in by the camera work, effective use of sound and the unique choice of leading man. The supporting cast works well together, are entertaining, plus there are a few surprises as we move through the plot and home reno. My only question with so many of these haunted house movies is why don't these people ever get a home inspection before they buy?