Ravenswood

After reading the description on Redbox, this film seemed to be right up my alley for a cheesy, asylum horror flick. I was really looking forward to watching this movie, but I should have known by the opening scene that this film was going to be a jumpy mess that made no sense.

After the opening scene, it introduces the main characters and all of them have the personality of a wet paper bag. Actually, that's unfair. A wet paper bag is still useful after it dries. The only character I found myself liking was Zach, played by Jock Campbell. He seemed to be the only person to bring any type of life to the character he was given. The acting is stiff at best for everyone else, though it does occasionally pick up here and there.

Now for the story: Wait. What story? No spoilers, but the main female, Sofia (Madeline Marie Dona) kept going on about this whole "wait for sex," "six months," "you know why," thing. But that's just it. It NEVER explains the time frame. It gives some backstory to her why she doesn't want it, but what was with the whole "six months" thing? Like...I kept waiting for that to come into play and it never did. And all of her friends keep saying how she's so "strong" and all this nonsense, but we never see it. You can't just keep saying what a character is. You have to show it.

That's the point of film. SHOW, don't TELL.

At no point throughout the movie is she ever shown doing anything noteworthy. She never tries fighting off the spirit, she never stands up for herself, she never does anything. Honestly, I found her and the boyfriend character to be the least interesting in the entire film and she was a main focus. If you're the main focus, you have to be interesting - entertaining. Just...something.

Most of these characters could be replaced with balloons with faces painted on them and you'd get the same amount of energy.

Look, I love cheesy horror flicks. Those dealing with mental institutions and possessions are usually my go-to movies for some fun and entertainment. This should have been a perfect movie for that and it wasn't. It honestly annoys me that I wasted the $1.69 to rent this thing.

The ending theme was pretty good, though.

I am a fan of Australian films but this one left me annoyed and quite irritable.

Firstly, there really wasn't anything new within the story-line and basically, we all knew what was to come.

Secondly, the acting didn't seem genuine. At some point, it looked as though the actors were tired and had to force themselves into character. One of the American kids was just a total ass! I doubt anyone would act that way but, it is only a film so I will bypass my hatred for that character. Also, why have American actors in the movie? I hope this was not made for an international release? Or were the actors Australian putting on an American accent?

I honestly have seen better films from Ozzie writers and producers. This film was on the verge of boredom.

Two young couples turn up at a supposedly haunted house for the weekend where they are met by a third. That sentence may contain a paucity of detail but, regardless of how much it is elaborated on, you know what comes next.

The house concerned is actually an abandoned hospital in Australia where a notorious doctor used to practise shock therapy. The third couple are the custodians, and for a fee they will show you around the premises where you can experience the feel like no other haunted house in Australia complete with cold spots nurtured by dry ice.

Yes, to the surprise of the custodians and the disbelief of the paying customers, a real spirit is unleashed, and yes, it does start killing them, and yes, this is not the sort of situation in which any rational person wants to find himself. The ghosts are rational too, one of them, because in the penultimate scene, having possessed the body of one of the people she/it hasn't killed, she explains at length to the other survivor how wrong he is about ghosts. Does this film have any good points? Well, at the moment you can watch it free on YouTube, but you may still want your money back. The reasons "Ravenswood" doesn't score zero points are because one is mandatory and because all concerned are clearly rank amateurs, and should not be judged by the standards of professional actors, scriptwriters or producers. In short, pity.

Nothing worse than Aussies pretending to be Americans, the accents drop out and then it takes away the suspension of disbelief. Great looking actress but the standard of acting is very low. Another supernatural genre film made by Aussies and the special effects are also very poor. I would forgive all that if you just gave me compelling characters that are not flat and wooden and were 2 dimensional with layers. Give me heart and emotion. Locations were fantastic but 1 star for effort.

To start with the cast and everyone associated with this movie have obviously done their very best to get the ratings up high on here. Unfortunately the movie does not reflect this I would definitely give this movie a minus rating if it was at all possible. It was terrible from start to finish with extremely poor acting and an awful storyline throughout. The put on American accents were shocking, It looks like it was all written and filmed and edited in one night. The amount of times that this movie made me cringe unfortunately for the wrong reasons. It's worth just watching to see how bad it is and decide for yourselves.