Abattoir

In the end this is a confused and tedious movie. One of the main problems is the casting of the two leads who aren't very good. Jessica Lowndes diction is poor and her acting is wooden while Joe Anderson struggles to convince as a cop. The best acting comes from Dayton Callie & Lin Shaye, older hands that manage to cope with the script.

It does look pretty good and the haunted house is quite cool but overall this doesn't really work.

The good:

Some gorgeous set design and interesting photography. Dayton Callie is splendid as the "villain." Some of the special effects are quite entertaining. Jessica Lowndes is very striking.

The bad:

Jessica Lowndes' acting is rather wooden, but Meryl Streep couldn't save this script.

If there was a script. The plot is utterly incomprehensible.

Heed the advice given regarding the haunted forest: Stay very far away!

This subject of this movie peaked my interest. A diabolic old man that collects murder scenes from houses, a cult of followers, a small dark nameless town. There are a lot of ideas and themes here to like. The acting is decent and the film looks good but seems to fall short for me. Somehow we just don't get a solid delivery. This should have been the type of movie that was just up my avenue but it came off too far-fetched even for my supernatural horror movie tastes. It's far above much of the sub-standard horror out there and has good production values but it's not a keeper. I'd recommend it for those interested and who enjoy something different but keep your expectations on the low end.

Newspaper reporter Julia Talben (Jessica Lowndes) is tired of doing stale real estate stories. Her sister Amanda's entire family is massacred. Julia and police detective Declan Grady find a blood-drenched Richard Renshaw inside the house. Renshaw surrenders but Julia finds no easy answers. Somebody quickly buys the house and the crime scene is mysteriously ripped out. It's one of many murder rooms collected over the years by Jebediah Crone (Dayton Callie).

This is trying very hard to be a brutal noir. Any bright joy is stripped out of the frame. Even daylight looks bleak. While I appreciate the attempt, it is not all together successful. It struggles visually with the lower budget and weak directing. The intentional lifelessness leaves the movie lifeless. It looks more cheap than stylized. As a horror, there is nothing to be had until the last part with the rooms. Simple jump scares are beyond this movie. Crone doesn't even appear for the first half. This fails on a very basic level.

And this is true in almost every regard. You can start with the costume design (very classy, very noir) throughout to the set design. If I were to rate those things, the movie would receive a much higher vote from me. Beautifully shot (though it'd be tough to catch a bad side in regards of Jessica Lowndes) and edited, the technical aspect is in place so to speak.

But when it comes to the story and the characters, the movie has quite a few flaws. And while you will notice many at the beginning (it actually has a strong start), it will get apparent later on. Especially during the final set piece, it's one of those cases where you want to kill the characters yourself. For one, so it will be over quick and also to make sure they won't survive this (because ... you know they don't deserve to). It's just such a shame and a lot of talent going to waste ...