Haunting Sarah

A Hallmark Channel horror film that is based on Lisa Grunwald's novel New Year's Eve. The plot is based around two identical twin sisters played by Kim Raver, both of whom have 7 year old children called Sarah and David, both of whom have developed a close bond whilst growing up. When David is tragically killed, it becomes apparent that Sarah believes David is still in contact with her, something which causes friction between the twins.

Very effective spooker this, with decent literary smarts involving grief and the always fascinating subject of identical twins. Raver's dual performance and that of young Niamh Wilson as Sarah keeps the production on a good footing, while the chills and thrills are capably mounted by director Ralph Hemecker. Not what you would call essential for horror fans, but as TV produced movies go this is a good effort all round. 7/10

The writer and college professor of mythology Erica (Kim Raver) and her pediatrician sister Heather (Kim Raver) are twin sisters and very connected since they were child. Erica's daughter Sarah (Niamh Wilson) and Heather's son David (Ryland Thiessen) are close as siblings. However, when David is hit by a car and dies in a silly accident, Sarah has premonitions and claims that she still talks and plays with her cousin. Meanwhile Erica finds that she is pregnant and need to rest and Heather is informed that she can not have a baby anymore. Erica travels to a cottage nearby a lake and Erica's maid Rosie (Alison Sealy-Smith) explains to Erica that the spirit of David does not realize that he abruptly died and is grabbed to Sarah waiting for the chance to reborn. But Erica does not believe in her words and sends Rosie back home, staying in the house with Sarah and Heather. When the spirit of David is aggressive with Sarah, Erica calls Rosie to help her.

"Haunting Sarah" has potential but unfortunately fails mostly in the end. The idea of the connection between twins and a spirit refusing to move on and wishes to reincarnate in a baby is intriguing and even spooky in some moments, but not well explored. Unfortunately the writer and the director never decide whether the movie is drama or horror and give a commercial unsatisfactory resolution to the plot. There are many flaws in the development of the characters, like for example, the confused relationship of Erica and Heather – is Heather an evil twin? Why did she build a spirit house? Why Erica follows her in the end? Edgar is very weak and disappointing, taking no attitude; it would be better off that Erica was divorced; and why David would transform in a fiend in his after death and hurt his beloved cousin? In the hands of Stephen King and Mary Lambert, this movie might be great. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Aparição" ("Apparition")

The usual TV movie ghost story nonsense. HAUNTING SARAH bears a title almost exactly the same as a similarly-themed '80s ghost story, THE HAUNTING OF SARAH, making me wonder why only housewives named Sarah seem to suffer the effects of a haunting in American-made TV movies.

Anyway, this one has a intriguing set up: the main characters are a pair of identical twins (difficult to differentiate, given the scriptwriter's inability to provide characterisation) who are both married with children. When one of their kids is killed in a tragic car accident, the daughter of the other begins to exhibit symptoms of being controlled and guided by his spirit.

I was mildly involved in this opening scenario, despite the typical deficiencies in a TV movie: poor production values, play-it-safe content, middling performances and a samey feel. However, the early potential is soon wasted in too much of the clichéd 'is she/isn't she' mad storyline, and boring scenes of families arguing. The child acting is pretty poor, it has to be said, and occasionally the film veers into outright ham with some sub-EXORCIST hijinks. Not recommended, then.

After a devastating accident, a woman comes to believe her twin sisters' recently-deceased son has come back through her new child to continue his relationship with her daughter and must stop his possessive nature.

This was an incredibly limp and lifeless affair as there's hardly anything worthwhile here. The biggest plus here is that it does a rather nice job of making the possession seem realistic, from the drawings of the future to the secretive behavior in the twins' relationship as well as the marks on her body. All of this is nicely explained and given some real thought, especially in the later half when that behavior starts to get into rather freaky territory with their growing attachment and expensive gifts that seem to hide something more to it. It also features one rather cool sequence where the daughters' thrashing around in bed and they come rushing in to see what's wrong, and once seeing it's a charm bracelet as the cause remove it immediately only to find a supernatural cause flying in and wrecking the room. However, nothing is really interesting here due to the film's nature since it can't really go too extreme or terrifying, literally cutting this one off from the points that would've sold this one the most. The fact that the possession really amounts to mouthing off at the mother, hiding away from her to go be with the sister in secret and not sharing anything about their activities together and in general not showing off any kind of truly thrilling or terrifying actions here is what really stands out since this allows more for the network audience to connect to the characters and the situations yet plagues this as a horror effort. That leaves a lot of rather boring scenes that don't have any impact due to how toned down or brief all these supposed scares are which in the end leaves it really wanting despite a few solid moments here and there.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Mild Violence, some Language and intense themes of child loss and trauma.

This is a film that you might want to swerve, yep, definitely swerve it. Boring, confusing, pointless housekeeper, worse than pointless husband and the twin set and pearl twin, well, lost for actual words. No plot, no scares, no nothing. Big fat swerve required.