Haunt: la casa maldita

An introverted teen (Harrison Gilbertson) connects with his new neighbor (Liana Liberato), and together the couple begins to explore the haunted house that his family has unknowingly just purchased.

There are some things worth liking about this film. The cinematographer is excellent, first of all, and the snow shots look great. Casting Liana Liberato was a wise move, as she has "the look" that could really take her places in the coming years. And the inclusion of the supernatural radio (for lack of a better term) was cool.

What was not appreciated was the writer's apparent influence from "American Horror Story". Maybe this is all coincidental, but the house full of ghosts, the strange neighbor, it all seemed very familiar. And not really in a good way. Other reviews have called the film unoriginal, and they are right. While few horror films are, this one is even more derivative than others.

Perhaps most strange of all was the poor advertising from IFC. The cover art is not terribly persuasive, and they make no mention of Jacki Weaver or Ione Skye. Weaver gets a mention on the back, but these are two names that should be put prominently on the cover. Why would you not play up having a two-time Oscar nominee in your film?

The movie has a very strong beginning. Sound effects throughout are very clear and nicely put (for those scary moments you are waiting for to jump off your seat). But after that strong start, you might find yourself a bit too relaxed and the new characters introduced do not get enough screen time. Other than that, one of the most major flaws is that the story lacks a bit of sense.

It's a shame, it could've been so much better. Not to mention the typical "stupid" behavior, that our characters show, despite knowing better. The mothers (characters) seem to be doing the best job from anyone else. Still there is enough to be entertained, if you allow yourself not to be bothered

If you are looking for a spooky movie then "Haunt" is not really the best of choices. It has a mediocre storyline and some fairly cheap scare tricks going on.

A family has moved into a new house where mysterious things are going one. And when the teenagers have a séance they get in touch with something inside the house.

It is a mediocre storyline that initially did seem okay, but it just lacked proper scary atmosphere and spooky moments. And whenever they did attempt to scare the audience by showing a haunt or apparition, they usually made use of a lousy out of focus effect with the camera. I guess that it is an easy way to glance past perhaps a lack of great effects or make-up?

The acting in "Haunt" was okay, although the cast were extremely limited by the script and the storyline.

"Haunt" did have potential to be a good horror movie, but director Mac Carter couldn't bring the ship safely into harbor, so to speak.

All in all, an average movie experience, but a weak horror experience. As such, "Haunt" fails to haunt the audience and scores a mere five out of ten stars from me.

Such a pity, this movie started with so much promise, then seemed to lose it's way and quite possibly money and time. Was building to quite an interesting spooky story, then WHAM!, out of nowhere it ends, with so many loose ends, so many questions, so many "eh!, but what about" questions. "why did that happen" moments. Quite honestly, you watch this and you feel, well, cheated!. Such a pity, there were a few, suspend your belief moments, but weren't too niggly. But ultimately, this movie was a mish mash of Coulda, woulda, shoulda moments it was just too hard to ignore or forgive. You watch this movie and you feel time was not on it's side. It's the shell of a movie that could have been.!!. ;(

This movie just goes from "interesting" to "uh.. that was it?", REALLY fast.

It starts with typical "family moves into a haunted house" bit but it feels like movie tries to copy clichés only and is happy not following through different sub-plots. For example, you might think that a young girl talking to a herself alone in her room & scratching family member's eyes from a photo will lead to something really messed up later on.. but then you'd be wrong since movie doesn't do anything with that setting, doesn't progress it at all.

It's like the director had a list of horror cliché's to add and that was it.

Also, this movie throws in so many jump "scares" that you will soon start predicting the next jump. It's ridiculous, not scary at all.

The only positive thing out of it is that the atmosphere during horror sequences was actually well done. The acting wasn't exactly bad as well.