Haunted

"Dark House" was interesting in its own way, and it did have some rather interesting aspects. Well, that was right up to a certain point, where it was revealed what was going on and it dawned on the audience. From there, then the movie took a turn for the worse in my opinion.

Director Victor Salva did manage to put together an interesting movie that had a good amount of suspense and building up thrills. Just as shame that the movie took that turn. And no, I am not revealing what it is.

There is a nice sense of fear and dread to the movie, especially because for three-quarters of the movie you have no real idea what is going on. And the events that do take place are a little bit odd, disturbing and just downright weird.

The people on the cast list were doing good jobs with their given roles, especially Tobin Bell, who really stood out in this movie with his dark charisma and usual strange charms.

However, for a horror and thriller, then "Dark House" didn't really push any boundaries or bring to the game something that hadn't been seen or done before. Of course, the turn of events in the last quarter of the movie is a matter of personal preference whether you like it or not. I didn't care much for where the turn took the movie, and as such the movie did, in my opinion, drop well down in overall enjoyment. As such, then I am rating "Dark House" 5 out of 10 stars.

It starts off pretty well, don't they all though, then it gets a bit rushed and disjointed in the middle to end. They could have run another half hour in the second half to explain what the hell was going on a bit more. Not a bad movie though.

All those title changes, how is one supposed to keep track of them? I did watch this movie at a Festival and it was called "Dark House". You can still find it with that title here, but apparently it changed. Maybe the buzz was not so good and they decided to change it to get a fresh clean sheet/start? Who really knows? And who really knows what's up with horror movies starting off strong and getting weaker by the minute ... like this one right here.

It's a shame, because the mood this creates at the beginning suggests it would (and could) be stronger than it actually is. But it falls (and fails thereby) into clichés and ridiculous twists, that will leave your head spinning faster than Linda Blairs head in the Exorcist (not in a good way obviously).

A friend and I decided we would watch a low budget horror flick and I chose this because I saw that it was rated 4.7. It was a lot better than we anticipated. There were a couple of bumpy spots and the acting was mediocre. The movie seemed like it had too many different elements till the end. The ending brought all the weird points together. All in all I felt it was an enjoyable movie. Well worth the watch!! :)

I would suggest this movie to anyone looking for a inexpensive horror movie done right. The camera work was done very well, the special effects were fairly good but you could tell it was fake. I am glad the ending for this movie was good and tied the entire movie by the end of the flick.

Victor Salva is up to his old tricks in DARK HOUSE, another predictable horror yarn featuring buff young men who invariably disrobe at some point for the role. I'm surprised that Salva still manages to find work in Hollywood, not because of his private indiscretions (to put it mildly), but because his films are just so pitiful. CLOWNHOUSE, the two JEEPERS CREEPERS flicks, they've all been below par and DARK HOUSE is no exception.

The house of the title is an ancestral home sought out by a group of faceless teenage types without an ounce of charisma between them. The house has some magical properties including the ability to move at will, but other than that there's little of interest here, apart from the requisite bloodshed. No scares, no atmosphere, just monotony. Lesley-Anne Down has a minor part and there's a nicely complex turn from SAW's Tobin Bell, but otherwise DARK HOUSE is a mess and nothing you've not seen before.