The Linda Vista Project

If a movie has multiple names it always loses credibility for me, this has quite a few.

Known as The Linda Vista Project, American Conjuring, The Hospital and American Poltergeist 3. The latter being the most interesting as there are two different franchises called American Poltergeist, both with multiple films and quite frankly it's hard to identify which fits into which.

It tells the story of a group of ghost hunters in the infamous Linda Vista building which you may already know was an insane asylum once upon a time. Needless to say spooky things happen, stuff gets out of control and cue credits.

Yes this exact storyline has been done dozens of times, in fact several have already been done in the Linda Vista building. What sets this marginally apart from the rest is that it isn't actually done in the found footage format like they usually are. Honestly however, that hasn't done it any favors at all.

Another thing it has is CGI and lots of it, generally you don't see that in these types of films. Instead of wonky shaky cam and furniture moving here we actually see the entities, but that really damages the film due to the incompetence of those responsible for the sfx.

But it's low budget you say? Correct, but it still had a full million under it's belt so it should have looked better than this. Instead it's all so very unforgivably ugly. Combine that with absolutely zero originality or character and you have a cookie cutter movie and a bad one at that.

The Good:

I love the Linda Vista building

Lead was above par

The Bad:

Religious nonsense

SFX are just plain ugly

Annoying needless flashes

Stock sound effects and screams

Let me start of by saying, if it wasn't for the action picking up so slow Bo would have got into this film quicker ibwanted to change it for the first 20-30 mins but I am type of person when I start something I hate not to finish it.

Which paid off with this film it got better and the story line was not bad I only wish that the ending would have been a little different, unless this all based on true events and if that is case and what happened in this movie was exactly what happened in in real life. If that is case then I am ok with how it went but my personal feeling are different I would have like a different out come.

So I saw this movie on Amazon Prime, it had a 4.5 out of 5 rating. Checked it's rating here, and, of course, the first 15 people rated it a "10". So I trudged through it one night with nothing else to do, and I regret every minute of it. Bad acting, bad lighting, bad dialogue, stupid plot line (wannabe paranormal activity ripoff). I should have known when I saw that the leading actress doesn't even have a head-shot (and she starred in a zombie stripper movie first among her FOUR films), and the total budget was 1 million. I bet most of that went to pay these non-actors, because they didn't spend it on good CGI or post-production.. This movie just DRAGGED through the first 45 minutes of nothing happening, and the last 45 minutes was just lots of running around from scary noises (I don't consider this a 'spoiler', as you can get that from the description, and I couldn't tell you what happened at the end; I quit with 25 minutes to go. I couldn't do it any longer, I was looking around for razor blades to make it stop at this point). My gosh it's lame.

And I must say, I'm really sick of those who work on a film jumping on these sites and up voting their movie (or worst; companies that PAY people to do that). Yes, I know that it'll eventually level out, but movies like this won't get seen enough, and sometimes there actually are good films out there that are unknown.

Bottom line, trust your instincts when browsing for new films, as red lights were going off left and right for me, I just ignored my "God-aweful cheap movie ahead!" radar.

I am a major horror movie fan and probably have seen about 75% of every horror movie ever made. I literally watched 1-3 horror movies a day (I don't watch TV). I just watched this on amazon prime (based on the high ratings here) and I have to say that I honestly believe all the high ratings are fake! I have enjoyed many a low budget horror movie, but this was just plain awful, in all regards. The acting, while not the worst I've seen, is very mediocre. The plot was boring, nothing at all scary happened, there was nothing frightening going on, it was just flat out boring dialogue throughout the entire boring movie.

'American Poltergeist 3' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'American Poltergeist 3' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is really nothing to recommend.

Lets start with the sole positive. The setting, while simplistic, is fairly spooky at times.

Unfortunately, it is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited and the drab colour palette, so much so it was hard to appreciate it, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on and extremely awkward prolonged pauses, some of it veers into overwrought melodrama too.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour that makes some of the film play like a really bad spoof and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both incredibly poorly done.

A lot of 'American Poltergeist 3' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.

There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too, a lot of it drags due to padding and too many parts being uneventful. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random and sometimes not there at all. This is very dreary and amateurish stuff.

Overall, awful with no redeeming value apart from an element that is difficult to appreciate with it being complemented so badly. 1/10 Bethany Cox