The St. Francisville Experiment

As the only person who has watched this in 14 years (thank you pandemic) I recommend steering clear. This movie was horrific, some of the least like able characters I've ever seen, and that's 50% of a found footage film.

I do not understand where this budget went as there were no special effects and terrible makeup. The acting was AWEFUL, they actually laughed during the movie as a testament to how bad the plot was.

Very cringe filled movie.

Ted Nicolaou made a lot of great horror and fantasy films. I am looking for all his films to see. I could not find this one for 3 year, until I unexpectedly found it in youtube. To tell the truth I wanted to see more ghosts and less talks here. It looks like in 1999-2001 Ted had a crisis , maybe in money. His features of this time look more like real low budget thrash z garbage movies. But I do not claim him to be a bad director this time . Everything happens. The ending has some nice creepy details and suspense but the whole film was long dull dialogues .

only for real Ted's fans.

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A "Blair Witch" ripoff involving four people who go ghost hunting in a supposedly haunted Louisiana mansion. Unlike the gem it's ripping off, there is nothing frightening here unless you consider bad acting to be scary. This is truly a film where nothing happens. The only refuge from pure boredom is the occasional unintentional hilarity that pops up. For instance, we get some priceless dialogue like this choice exchange:

"There's a dead bird." "How badly dead is it?"

This thing is also notable for having what is probably the stupidest cat jump scare I've ever seen. I can't forget the bit towards the end where the group splits up, and the guy going into the attic keeps complaining about how scary it looks in there. The others then spend what feels like at least ten minutes trying to convince him to go in. How exciting!

I have liked films by Ted Nicolaou in the past, but this will not rank as one of them.

I give this this movie one star - strictly on the fact that they told the real New Orleans story of Madame LaLaurie.

Watching the Blair Witch rip-off "The St. Francisville Experiment (2000)" and this movie is just so bad it's laughable. One guy walks around saying "I love the ghosts" to stay positive, a girl is a total basket case the entire time, at one point she exclaims, "Omg a dead bird! and the other girl asks, "How dead is it?" All the actors are terrible, and the screenplay is atrocious. I think the only good thing I can say about this movie is, nope I got nothing.

Every thing the characters did in The St Francisville Experiment contradicted everything else they did or said at each moment... they are introduced as serious investigator friends, but it becomes clear in the first scene in the house they don't know each other at all and are complete amateurs, then one says to share all their feelings, so the one girl says a prayer by herself for herself which suddenly everyone is okay with, then they say as long as we stick together we should be able to handle this, so what do they do? They split up to go cleanse the house, all the rooms simultaneously... This movie was like that contradiction poem we heard as little kids, the one that goes... admission is free pay at the door, grab a chair and sit on the floor... this was the absolute contradiction haunting movie.

The climax itself had such potential, but just left me feeling upset.

Spoilers Ahead ---------------------------------------------- So many clichés and contradictions in this film, from the totally healthy cat that jumps out of an Armoire, a falling chandelier, non-cohesive emotions from scene to scene, saying lets stick together because that's how we'll be successful here, then splitting up, saying lets share all of our emotions so one girl prays by herself? The ending has one room shaking, an arm reaches for one girl, that was dull, another gets dragged, they find the guy who was in the attic, chained in the basement hidden medical room, and Ryan tied to a table? The only ghost you see is a bit of mist that quickly dissipates....

Episodes of Ghost Adventures are scarier than this movie.

I cannot recommend this movie to anyone.

1/10

I know a lot of people seem to have a passionate hatred for this film. After all, it was made to cash in on the success of The Blair Witch Project. But to be fair, the film industry does this all the time, taking a popular film and its ideas & themes, then running them completely into the ground.

But who really cares about that crap, as long as the film is good. I do not claim to possess an intricate knowledge of filmmaking; I simply like what I like and don't care if other people laugh at me and think I'm stupid for enjoying what they consider bad cinema.

When I first watched The St. Francisville Experiment in college with a couple of my friends, I was totally drawn into the film. For the hour+ that it was on I was completely engrossed in the goings on of the four characters as they try to determine whether or not the house is haunted. Granted, the acting certainly wasn't Oscar-caliber, but the cast was believable enough to keep my attention for the duration of the film. They exuded enough of a naive charm that I found them likeable and wanted them to come out of the house unscathed.

Perhaps most important of all involving a haunted house film was that I found the film scary. It's been quite a while since I've felt fear from watching a film, having my skin break out in goosebumps. And this movie did it for me, and I can't thank them enough.

Ripoff or not, I like this film! It has believable characters, a cool back story based on true events, eerie atmosphere, and an overall feeling of doom and horror. I like this film even more than The Blair Witch Project (which is itself somewhat of a ripoff of Cannibal Holocaust), and I am not ashamed to say that.