A Haunting at the Rectory

First of all, this is nowhere near a 'horror', it's not even a reasonable ghost story. Neither is it a reasonable thriller or suspense movie, nor a drama worth any weight at all.

Just because a film is low budget doesn't mean the fundamentals of film making should be abandoned.

If a film is being presented as a certain time period make sure it looks the part. In other words, camouflage modern fitments for starters, even if it means using a bit of painted cardboard!! Modern light switches slap bank in the middle of the frame.

Next is don't shoot your own equipment! In several scenes attention to framing is non-existent. For example a massive light rig in the garden during a night scene.

Shaky shake works SOMETIMES. Hand-held effects can bring drama to a scene when used appropriately. In this movie it is used far too much when the emphasis should be on the characters and becomes annoying and distracting (someone MUST have watched this before finalising the shoot).

Learn to direct. So many many times in this movie the actors appeared to be left hanging wondering what to do next. Long pauses that made actors look like they had lost the plot became another annoyance.

As with directing - learn to edit! Many of the annoyances because of the lack of direction could have been addressed in editing. Conversations between characters were often slow and laboured - totally artificial.

Make sure your story reflects what you claim. The marketing for this film is as a horror. As in my opening comment, it isn't - nowhere near.

Having said that, if the technical problems with the film had been addressed and the actors given direction and the opportunity to rehearse more this could have been an interesting movie to watch.

The production team had the equipment, but the lack of attention to detail has yet again let down what could have been a decent film.

Watched this and was extremely disappointed. It's not actually a horror film, a more accurate description would be a drama without any drama. Nothing actually happens, characters just mope around rooms and moan about their lives. The acting is abysmal and could not even be classed as amateur dramatics standard.The actor that plays Frank Peerless is ironically named as I've never seen someone act so badly. I've no idea where he got the idea to talk in a mock cockney/toff accent- but its laughable. The vicar is about as wooden as they come and the whole thing is unbelievable and would be laughable if it wasn't so tedious.

If this is the standard of British filmaking there is no hope.

Okay so going into A Haunting at the Rectory otherwise known as American Poltergeist 5 - The Borely Haunting I expected a low budget ghost flick and for it to be absolutely terrible but I was sorely mistaken.

I mean okay it's pretty terrible so I wasn't wrong about that but this simply isn't a ghost flick and quite frankly the supernatural element is needlessly tacked on and shouldn't even exist.

Therefore this shouldn't be considered a horror at all, more of a drama as that is essentially what A Haunting at the Rectory is.

It tells the story of a Reverend and his wife who take on a new handyman. But the handyman is not what he seems, and the wife begins to see ghostly apparitions.

Again the supernatural element is minimal and simply shouldn't have been added. I assume it was simply to raise interest in the film deeming it only likely to succeed in the horror market.

Instead of a horror we have a reasonably paced but not very interesting British drama that ends on a passable twist but you'll likely be bored long before it arrives there.

Want a horror? Avoid. Want a dull drama, this is one for you.

The Good:

Cast are above par

Twist is passable

The Bad:

Just not very interesting

Very deceptive marketing

This movie is truly terrible!

An affront to all the movies that have gone before. The acting is abysmal and the script, I assume there was one? When the opening scenes begin the guy who comes to the house looking for a job as a handyman starts off with an Americanism " It sure is a wonderful place you have here reverend!" "Sure" is a word in that context that would never be heard in middle classes houses of England such as Borley rectory was supposed to be for at least another 40 years. It's also delivered in a bad RP accent reminiscent of amateur dramatics that cannot quite be pinned down as it apparently wanders between there and a cockney accent?

Also, for a house of dimensions there is an awful shortage of staff. At least there should have been a maid of all work to answer the door rather than the lady of the house answering it to the handyman surely? This script and movie has so many social and grammatical errors in the first few scenes that it's unrecoverable. The reverend, has all the character development of a door. In that he's wooden and untalented and really should behind the counter in a hardware store. There he could possible shine! He takes no references, has clearly never hired staff in his life, and just gives the job out like jumble at a church fair.

The applicant has his hat resting on the stool in the drawing room of all places. His hat should have been removed at the door and really should have been taken and placed to one side by the maid who answered the door. But of course the maid didn't answer the door because they didn't cast one. Servants in those days knew their place and would have been interviewed either in the study or the hall. It is such an amalgamation of bad writing, social faux-pas, bad acting, dodgy set dressing and woeful miscasting that one doesn't know what to say really. At 2.44 I had decided that there were too many mistakes to enjoyable to watch by the time I got to five minutes I had to switch it off.

Any more than that and I cannot tell you as life is too short to sit through this particular brand of tripe. I had to give it one star but really, it doesn't deserve it........

But actually for the wrong reasons. This is quite subpar and I think it knows so itself. But since we have different tastes and all, some might find something appealing in this, that others do not even see. Even the acting that I would not consider ... good myself or the script this is based on ... you might find them freeing and interesting.

And that is the good thing when we talk about movies: we have something to talk about. In this case talking about a movie with a few characters is not really something that will change anyones mind about how they feel about it. It could have been a movie shot during the pandemic. Considering that it only contains a few people. The horror does not work as well as the makers thought it would. The tension between the characters will finally have a conclusion - but while it may think it is clever ... well you'll be the judge (jury and executioner - no pun intended)