La sombra de Helen

No character development. Most of the book isn't even in this movie. Hard to even make out what's happening due to how dark it is. The sound quality is horrendous, which really just consists of extremely loud annoying screeching. This book was a childhood favorite and they succeeded in utterly butchering it on so many levels.

Somewhere in the country, a long-haired girl walks into a body of water. We do not see her face and assume she's the story's main character. That would be moody teenager Sophie Nelisse (as Molly). True, she could also be a 100-year-old ghost with the world's first hair curling iron. Apparently, the ghostly girl appears to get you interested in this story, and she serves as an attention grabber. The story shifts to 1982 Baltimore, Maryland, where our main family is moving. The children are the ones to watch. They are the alluring Ms. Nelisse, her little brother Liam Dickinson (as Michael) and their spooky little step-sister Isabelle Nelisse (as Heather). The family moves into a creepy-looking old church located next to a graveyard...

When you see the family's darkly Gothic new home, you know weird stuff is going to happen. And, from the introduction of spooky little Isabelle Nelisse (the girls are real-life sisters), you know who is ripe for possession. The little girl immediately walks and acts like a ghost. In case you think she might be normal, we see her wander out in the woods and pick up a butterfly with her bare hand...

Butterflies are normally shy around people...

They don't like to be petted...

This story is based on the novel "Wait Till Helen Comes" by Mary Downing Hahn, which was undoubtedly better. The author appears on screen, as a librarian. Her basic tale parallels most ghost stories, and it is nicely plotted. The relationships formed by a "step-family" add interest, but the film adaptation certainly doesn't make the most of them. Young Dickinson is most convincing as the initially skeptical little brother and it's nice to hear Nat King Cole's "Ramblin' Rose" is still getting airplay after all these years. Director Dominic James and his crew make the most of an atmospheric setting, which is nicely photographed by Rene Ohashi. It and the story take no time to grow and develop, however. Ghost stories should be much less direct.

**** Little Girl's Secret (11/12/2016) Dominic James ~ Sophie Nelisse, Liam Dickinson, Isabelle Nelisse, Maria Bello

Moving to a new house in the countryside, a blended family attempting to heal their wounds together finds that their youngest daughter has taken up a friendship with a girl who supposedly died years ago and forces the oldest daughter to break the spirit's hold over her to save the family.

This one wasn't all that bad of an effort for the channel. One of the more engaging aspects here is the rather fun job this does with building up the idea of the ghostly friendship that develops throughout here. These are far more intense than expected here as the first half gives this quite a solid set-up to start in on the ghost appearing to them, letting the first half then be filled with some rather enjoyable elements featuring the slowly-emerging cause of her befriending the ghost. Due to the film going for this slow-burn feeling of the revelation that comes about from her being slowly brought into the ghosts' control, together with the intriguing scenes of the flock of birds always seen to be congregating over their house or the girls' fascination with the spot in the woods where she plays that tends to freak out her sister, alongside a nice burgeoning mystery which gives this a lot to really like. Once it moves into the buildup and goes into actual supernatural antics, this one picks up and becomes incredibly fun. With this one delving into the fine buildup about the ghost girl and her intentions early on, the later half pays off these scenes rather nicely with the scenes painting her as a troubled, miscreant youth with these supernatural scenes playing up the possibility that she could potentially be doing it herself instead of the ghost so that the scenes of the swarming insects in the house or the fantastic revelations made that solve the mystery once and for all. That leads to the thrilling finale where it finally plays off these issues in grand style not only with the flashback but also the present-time action which are all woven together rather well. These here help to build this one up pretty decently although there are a few flaws present. As is to be expected from the channel's output, there are large sections of the film that really aren't that enjoyable for hardcore horror fans. Due to needing to keep the entire affair as family-friendly as possible, this one really struggles at times to be a horror film with the constant need to quit the building of suspense in order to keep the more appropriate forms of drama intact. Rather than engage with a rather intriguing and enjoyable ghost story about the house and its effects on the family, this one tends to go more into the teenage daughter's rightful annoyance and aggravation at the living predicament which isn't interesting, enjoyable or creative. It adds a drama-like feel to this one that undercuts a lot of the tension and suspense being built up which is a disappointment. As well, that also means that there's just not a whole lot of intense or truly thrilling moments this one could've had by keeping it censored and restricted for as much as it does, which isn't as detrimental but does hold it back somewhat.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.

Money has to be the primary motive for making this: 1. The so-overused storyline of family (typically at-odds young female with younger brother) and in this case another (usually female) young one added to be the ghost recipient. 2. Also redundant: Family moves to rural house that (guess what?), not only looks haunted, but is haunted by (guess what?) deceased (and tragically of course) former family member (s). 3. Cheap effects and scenes starting with the so cheaply boring opening scenes of family in car driving on road. Help! Followed by cheap creepy sound effects; closing doors; moving furniture; lights flash; papers fly - you know the script. Oh, and cheap ghostly image. 4. Storyline continues to be non-creative (dare I say ripoff) of parents blaming older daughter for younger daughters behavior and so ends up doing research on house history at (guess where?) local library where we get to see (guess what?) old photos and news clips. 5. Ends predictably so if you want to ff you'll miss nothing. 6. No subtitles; poor enunciation; poor audio levels.

This isn't a Disney flick, but it easily could have been because it's the kind of film Disney produced as a Ghost Story back in the 60s. Nothing really scary at all, but mysterious--and there are ghosts. Fun for the whole family. A nice Ghost Story for the holidays.