The Other Side of the Door

Directed by Johannes Roberts and Roberts co-writes the screenplay with Ernest Riera. It stars Sarah Wayne Callies, Jeremy Sisto, Sofia Rosinsky and Suchitra Pillai.

Still struggling to come to terms with the death of her young son, Maria (Callies) is told of an Indian ritual where she can say goodbye to her son one last time, under one condition. The condition is that the conversation will be on the other side of a door - a door which simply must not be opened...

There were far worse horror films than this released in 2016, that's not to say this should be a selling point for The Other Side of the Door, but it at least is effective in what it does. The problems really are that it's all very cliché ridden, but how many horror films do not have clichés anyway? This is one for those who are just after a few genuine scares, some creeping dread like atmosphere, and a nifty ending. It doesn't tread any new ground, and it comes off like the bastard child of Ringu and Pet Sematary, but sometimes a safe horror with clichés is all you need for a decent night in with the lights off. 6.5/10

Like, seriously. Here we have a film with a plot that genuinely sounds decent but the filmmakers are incapable of pulling off. Sound familiar? Well that is because this has happened already this year with The Forest.. but The other side of the Door manages to be even worse. Horror films used to be inventive and fun in a twisted way, but is that now impossible to pull off?!

The plot involves a woman who's son is killed in a terrible and tragic accident, she discovers she can communicate again with him through an ancient Indian temple, but is warned to never open the door. Of course, if you warn somebody in a cliché horror movie not to do something they are totally gonna do it and she does which brings all the spirits into the world of the living. It could have been done so well.. but i put emphasis on the COULD. First of all the son is evil now. Literally a line of dialogue is "he is evil". Now, correct me if I'm wrong but this was never explained.. ever. Are we supposed to just look at him and say "yeah that makes sense considering he's dead". There was no hint to this when he was alive and no back story.

Unexplained things like this happened a lot in this film and it really bugged me. Nothing was ever scary, not even the jump scares made me jump, which is a bad sign to begin with. Not to mention i drifted off many times for a few seconds over the course of the film.. which should never happen if i am enjoying something. By that i mean i did not enjoy any of this film. The premise is great but the way it was executed just felt so wrong. So in the end, this film is just another cliché horror garbage fest that i will end up forgetting about by the end of the week probably. I really hope i get the horror i crave by the end of the year, 10 Cloverfield Lane is why i remain hopeful.

Since a good horror film like "the others" or "shining" apparently comes every decade or two, I've stopped having high expectations. I'm not sure what, but may be horror films can either be masterpieces or a failure. Or it's just that not much budget is put into them. Acting, premise and plot was decent. So I feel a little unfair when I'm gonna bring down so much good work just because of poor writing.

The beginning was appropriately paced fast enough, but it is then that you also realise the narration fails to develop the characters.

Passed mid time, story begs for the resident of the house to question the sudden change in his house, and he doesn't. At that point I start skipping before I get bored.

I watched this because another comment said it was worth a watch. Well, I'm recommending it is if you have some side activity, or if you easily get excited .

It appears from the reviews that true horror fans appreciate this whereas people who are just looking at it from a story perspective grade it much lower. As a horror fan , and never heard of the film I was pleasantly surprised of how creepy and scary it was with some genuine disturbing moments that are lacking from many modern day horrors. I do not know why the score is so low so hopefully this will bolster it !

It was a pretty good movie, nothing spectacular, but worth a watch. The acting was decent, and the atmosphere was pretty creepy. The story it self was very predictable, especially if you've read Pet Cemetery. Sarah Wayne Callies was terrific in it. I just didn't find the story very original.

I liked that it was set in India and incorporated some of the Indian religions and customs.

Don't expect anything ground breaking, but it's a good movie to watch if you like jump scares. All in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend and hour and a half.