The Hopewell Haunting

This film was a whole lot of nothing. Nothing happens at all. It's world-record-level boring. There's no character development. There's no emotional experience. It isn't remotely horror. Or a thriller. It's not suspenseful. It's not entertaining. It's not campy. It's got nothing going for it. The whole thing feels like clickbait.

The acting is so painfully awful, you just can't get past it. And the script is even worse. The only redeeming quality was the atmosphere and possibly a little of the cinematography, but since everything else was completely butchered, it doesn't do much. The sound editing could have been fantastic and eerie but instead of being tactful and subtle, it was completely obnoxious, failing to have its intended effect.

I am giving two stars because I somehow got conned into watching to the end thinking MAYBE something redeeming would happen in the final five minutes. It didn't.

Please do yourself a favor and skip this. I seriously implore you to not waste your time. This isn't even worth playing in the background. It isn't worth watching for horror connoisseurs, completionists, or anyone expecting horror or any of its elements in any capacity whatsoever. This is easily in the top 10 worst films I've ever sat through.

Loved it. Aside from the very haunting scenery and authentic acting, it had many edge-of-the-seat scary elements with a conclusive and thoughtful ending. The period in time and the scenes really add to the overall melancholy vibe. The scary parts deliver well. I was peeking through my fingers a few times. It had a wonderful, deeper storyline that lent to a greater understanding of the main character's struggles. There was a sad element too, which I won't reveal. And surprisingly, there were a few happy emotions as well. Good story with a decipherable ending. We love a thoroughly good, quality haunt, and this truly delivered.

If you like slow paced horror, dripping with atmosphere, tension and layers of story told only through visuals, implications, and audio cues, this is it. This is the movie you need to watch, now.

This film won't appeal to everyone, as the reviews unfortunately reveal, but there is a ticking heart to this film that casual horror viewers won't be able to appreciate.

Subtlety.

The story never gets bombastic. It never becomes too grand or overly ambitious. It stays grounded in a cold harsh 1930s reality. Delivering on that reality with drawn out tension crafted to a nearly perfect degree through great, but subtle, cinematography, excellent sound design and truly moody music.

Unfortunately there are a couple moments where the budget of the film shows through, one of which being a glaring error where an entire crew member can be seen on set for a single brief shot, but overall they do a good job of disguising a lot of the more low budget elements.

Unfortunately, the moments where the budget does show through, mainly in a particular sequence where they show a bit too much of the "creature", knock a couple stars off this films rating.

With slightly better effects--or a little more clever disguising of those less convincing elements--this could be a masterpiece of horror.

The story itself is simple, and leaves you with a lot of lingering questions, but the ambiguity is deeply intriguing, and there are enough subtle story elements sprinkled throughout the film to hint toward a possible answer to the mystery.

This is a film that wants you to think and figure things out on your own. It rarely holds your hand and leaves you both figuratively and literally in the dark, allowing for only murky and speculative answers to the questions it asks.

This is by design, and if that is not the type of movie you enjoy, then don't watch it, but if you like a bit of ambiguity to your horror, if you like to be left with lingering questions just as unsettling as the events that took place, you won't be disappointed here.

I watched this on a whim, with zero expectations going in, was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it. The other ratings make for it to seem like a "bad" horror film.

Out the gate you can tell it's a low budget film and you think it's gonna be the same tropes use in every other horror movie out there.

The location, time period, and soundtrack make for a spooky nerve racking experience. The camera work from normal switching to POV is a great touch.

If you're looking for a movie that's gore and jump scares at every turn, you're going to be disappointed. If you enjoy the classics from the likes of Karloff and Chaney with more subtlety and coming to your own conclusions, recommend this movie.

There is nothing elaborate or groundbreaking about this movie. It's simple. But it was a very effective movie. The ambience was riddled with dark fear. Don't expect a thrill ride. But, I have I admit, I watched it at 1am and ended up turning on the light. It was very well done for what it is, a time-piece horror. I doubt they had a particularly large budget, but they definitely did what they could with what they had. The acting was good as well. I think you should watch it, I'm glad I did.

Something I wonder is if the house was just a set or an actual house that exists somewhere. I wouldn't want to be in there alone.