Haunted

Victor Salva is up to his old tricks in DARK HOUSE, another predictable horror yarn featuring buff young men who invariably disrobe at some point for the role. I'm surprised that Salva still manages to find work in Hollywood, not because of his private indiscretions (to put it mildly), but because his films are just so pitiful. CLOWNHOUSE, the two JEEPERS CREEPERS flicks, they've all been below par and DARK HOUSE is no exception.

The house of the title is an ancestral home sought out by a group of faceless teenage types without an ounce of charisma between them. The house has some magical properties including the ability to move at will, but other than that there's little of interest here, apart from the requisite bloodshed. No scares, no atmosphere, just monotony. Lesley-Anne Down has a minor part and there's a nicely complex turn from SAW's Tobin Bell, but otherwise DARK HOUSE is a mess and nothing you've not seen before.

Haunted aka Dark House, is a good surprise for horror fans and for a horror movie containing this specific theme, a theme that has been repeated a hundred times before, and most of the times, the result was awful.

Story is familiar to anyone, so i won't mention it. This movie has many elements you've seen before. But it manages to combine them affectively by creating a unique atmosphere. Dark House has a good plot, with very good flow, intense atmosphere, keeps your interest the whole time. There are many gloomy scenes, which helps the story's atmosphere and gets the viewer in the mood of it. It's not boring at all. Yeah OK, it has some clichés and flaws, where all movies have, but it's not disappointing or annoying at all.

Victor Salva has created his best movie so far, at least in horror ones. It gives you a surprisingly good atmosphere, good plot, suspension, tense and scary moments. There's a constant tension the whole time. The appearance of Tobin Bell is a huge plus, with his great acting and incredibly deep voice, on a role who easily manages to deliver, tricking and chilling the viewers the way he knows to. Leslie Ann Down is a positive thing too, who is still gorgeous at the age of 60.

I avoided to write any details about the story, cause i didn't want to reveal anything and spoil someones interest to watch this movie.

Overall, this is a very good movie, and i definitely recommend it.

6 out of 10.

"Dark House" was interesting in its own way, and it did have some rather interesting aspects. Well, that was right up to a certain point, where it was revealed what was going on and it dawned on the audience. From there, then the movie took a turn for the worse in my opinion.

Director Victor Salva did manage to put together an interesting movie that had a good amount of suspense and building up thrills. Just as shame that the movie took that turn. And no, I am not revealing what it is.

There is a nice sense of fear and dread to the movie, especially because for three-quarters of the movie you have no real idea what is going on. And the events that do take place are a little bit odd, disturbing and just downright weird.

The people on the cast list were doing good jobs with their given roles, especially Tobin Bell, who really stood out in this movie with his dark charisma and usual strange charms.

However, for a horror and thriller, then "Dark House" didn't really push any boundaries or bring to the game something that hadn't been seen or done before. Of course, the turn of events in the last quarter of the movie is a matter of personal preference whether you like it or not. I didn't care much for where the turn took the movie, and as such the movie did, in my opinion, drop well down in overall enjoyment. As such, then I am rating "Dark House" 5 out of 10 stars.

All those title changes, how is one supposed to keep track of them? I did watch this movie at a Festival and it was called "Dark House". You can still find it with that title here, but apparently it changed. Maybe the buzz was not so good and they decided to change it to get a fresh clean sheet/start? Who really knows? And who really knows what's up with horror movies starting off strong and getting weaker by the minute ... like this one right here.

It's a shame, because the mood this creates at the beginning suggests it would (and could) be stronger than it actually is. But it falls (and fails thereby) into clichés and ridiculous twists, that will leave your head spinning faster than Linda Blairs head in the Exorcist (not in a good way obviously).

A friend and I decided we would watch a low budget horror flick and I chose this because I saw that it was rated 4.7. It was a lot better than we anticipated. There were a couple of bumpy spots and the acting was mediocre. The movie seemed like it had too many different elements till the end. The ending brought all the weird points together. All in all I felt it was an enjoyable movie. Well worth the watch!! :)

I would suggest this movie to anyone looking for a inexpensive horror movie done right. The camera work was done very well, the special effects were fairly good but you could tell it was fake. I am glad the ending for this movie was good and tied the entire movie by the end of the flick.