Curse of the Witching Tree

This was my second failure to bring home a good scary movie for family movie night. So much cliché, from disrespectful children, to potato sacks

Acting was terrible, story was tired, and did I mention that the acting was terrible? Was no research done to try and bolster the attempts to make any of this more believable, was he in a coma, or taking a nap?

The scariest part of this movie, was the fact that at the advertised 90 minute mark it didn't end! It went on for another 3 minutes. Very disappointed, after reading some lengthy reviews that really promoted this as a significant indie shocker. At least I had enough time to do some dishes and laundry.

Don't get me wrong, i'm British and i like nothing more than watching a home-grown movie. But this... I don't know where to start, the acting is like watching a school play, over exaggerated movements which are comical, the dialogue is stilted and amateur. Some members of the cast are supposed to be school children and plainly look about 25, it's insulting and unbelievable. Technically it's.... well i don't know, it's..... not technical at all. The dialogue is all captured using ambient microphones, you can barely hear the dialogue in places due to traffic, bird song or the wind. The whole thing is shot in what appears to be a lovely country house but whomever actually owns it (probably one of the producers, director or 'mate of') has obviously blown all their money purchasing or renting the property because inside the refurbishment is as poor as the acting. Who the hell would spend 3 million on a house and then put a 'Beko' fridge in it? The floor coverings, doors, door frames and skirting boards are straight out of a 90's new build house and not fitting at all with the period of the house. All in all i'd say the first 1,000 people who rated this movie are friends and family of the people who worked on it, certainly not the people who worked on it themselves because i doubt that would amount to more than 35 including the cast. What Budget? What script? What lighting? what score? What sound engineer?

It's like something produced by First year Bradford film School students, and that's an insult to Bradford Film School students as to date, they've not produced anything this appalling to my knowledge

This film has a decent plot but it falls apart because of all the film's other faults. We all love a good spooky tale about witches and ghosts. It's a shame the acting is so bad. It's almost painful to watch and I wasn't able to even finish the film.

I actually got to the climactic ending and turned it off. There are too many "dramatic" pauses where the camera is focused on the blank faces of the characters. There is no sense of "realness" at all--not in the dialogue, not in the actions. Obviously no one can say anything about realism in regards to how to live in a situation with hauntings like this, but there is either a lack of expression or exaggerated over-expression by the actors. The actress who plays the daughter looks older than the one who plays the mother. Characters who are petulant (and I'm not talking about the kid) with absurd lines makes this cringe-worthy. The scares are boring and trite.

Save your time, see another movie.

This is by far the worst film I have seen in many a year. The acting is more wooden than the tree in the title, the casting is shocking (The son has a posh Southern accent and the daughter a northern accent, plus the Mother must of been about 4 when she had the daughter)and even the sound is something you expect from a home movie you'd see on You've Been Framed. The camera-work is very poor too and over uses different angles and cuts away without need too may times.

Somebody should of been honest with the director at it's first screening and told him not to release this as it will bound to haunt him (more than this film haunted me anyway) in years to come if he really wants a career in film making.

Let my one good deed for 2015 be to warn everybody not to watch this.

I actually created this profile to post this review, YES... It is that bad!

Unhappy family moves into an old house while the father lies comatose in hospital. But the house is cursed by the spirit of a wronged mother.

OK, it's low budget but ... sigh. Doesn't anyone in Britain watch indie-American or French horror? Does everything have to be heritage ghostery, or Up Yours! soap opera?

The story does get its spooks on at about 40 mins, with an effective inter-cut of brother/sister/father, and the dialogue thins out as the director finally uses the camera. I won't mention what went before. Couple of badly timed jump scares - the first is literal, the second imitates a scene in Jessabelle.

It's hard on actors when they're presented with a mess, so I can't judge how good they are - except Eva the blind visionary was convincing: she had timing, and the visual of candle flames for eyes was a good touch. Actors are there to act, not overact.

Sad to be harsh, but the writing, direction and editing caused a sharp intake of breath. Use of music was just cheese - see the prologue for evidence. Pfff.

Keep it simple: ditch half the dialogue, a third of the characters, and a quarter of the runtime. Then carve out a clear story through sound and editing.