El otro lado de la puerta

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.

I'll be honest. I think if I hadn't seen this in cinema,with the lights off, the loud sound system and the big screen, I would've given it a lower score. If you saw The Forest earlier this year, you know what to expect from The Other Side of The Door.

The Good: I know a lot of peeps don't like her, but I think Sarah Wayne Callies has a great presence and a naturalness to her performances that I enjoy. She made for a believable mother, who had to make the kind of choice no parent should ever have to. Jeremy Sisto is another actor I like (remember him as the guy who got the arrows in his back in Wrong Turn?) and the kid actress, while average, didn't annoy me and actually appears in one of the better/scarier scenes in this movie. I also liked that the location was India and the evil/dark presence was part of their folklore. It was a little something new, that I hadn't really seen in North American films.

The Bad :Cliches, clichés, clichés! When for the love of Rice will they stop using the tired old tropes of : -Ghost with hollow eyes and stretched mouth (CGI of course) Look over there! Oops no, it's right next to you! (accompanied with loud ass noise) -Parent is completely absent from story for no reason, only to show up at the end. Sisto is VASTLY underused in this movie, to the point where I wondered if there was bad editing and he had scenes that were cut out. -Not following your own rules! (Burn stuff and ghost goes away, but wait, nope!) - Told not to do something or else. Does it anyway! -Witness the supernatural. Interact with the supernatural. Denies it exists.

I could go on and on, but nobody likes to read these days so I'll just stop and say, wait for it on DVD and watch it to pass the time. The Other Side of the Door, may scare the average horror viewer, but it's tepid waters, for the hardcore lovers of the genre.

"The Other Side of the Door" (2016 release; 95 min.) brings the story of Maria and Michael. As the movie opens, we are informed that this is "Mumbai, India" and we see the couple having dinner and walking on the beach, On a whim, they decide to make Mumbai their home. We then go "Six Years Later", and Maria is having a nightmare, Soon we learn that the couple lost a young son (we learn how in a flashback) and the couple and their daughter are struggling in the aftermath. After Maria tries to commit suicide, the household maid Piki tells her about a mysterious temple in the woods far away, where Maria could meet her little boy one more time and say a final farewell. At this point we're not even 15 minutes into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest horror movie from British director Johannes Roberts, who most recently gave us "Storage 24". Here Roberts goes the super-natural dimension, looking for the thin line between life and death. I must admit that I didn't know a whole lot about this movie going into it, and as it turns out, this was quite the disappointment for me. If shock effects akin to a bat flying out of a cave or toys in a bedroom starting to move are enough to make it a scary movie, then this will be right up your alley. Not to mention that there are several plot points that are utterly unbelievable, even accounting for the fact that this is a horror movie, where all belief is suspended. This is in stark contrast to how much better that other 'horror' movie which I saw recently, "The Witch", was compared to this. Sarah Wayne Collins (as Maria), best know for her work in "The Walking Dead", does the best she can with the material she is given and as always is easy on the eyes. But even she cannot overcome the fact that the movie lacks much character development, and as a result there is little to no emotional investment on the viewer's part. Early on in the movie, Piki tells her that when she is in the temple, whatever her little boy does, "you must not open the door!!!". Wanna take a guess what happens? One of the better aspects of the movie is actually the score, courtesy of Joseph Bishara, a noted composer in the horror movie genre (the "Insidious" franchise, the "Conjuring" franchise, etc.).

"The Other Side of the Door" opened nationwide this weekend. The Friday evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati was attended okay but not great. Couldn't help but notice that I saw 4 or 5 people leave midway through the film, and not returning. I made it to the end, but barely. A darn shame. I love a good horror movie, and surely this wasn't it, but by all means, if you have a chance to check out "The Other Side of the Door", be it in the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, I'd encourage you to do so and draw your own conclusion.

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.

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 !