Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour

We had seen the commercials for this movie on Nickelodeon, and my 11-year-old son thought it looked good and wanted to see it. I was curious after reading that the movie was shot on DVCProHD format and was apparently a low-budget family affair. I too have been a part of such productions, and I wanted to see how a movie like this fared on the big screen. I took my son and two of his friends-- 3 boys, ages 11, 11, and 10. They loved the movie! Walking out of the theatre, they were amazed, talking about their favorite parts, and how scary it was. Sure, some critics have lambasted it. But it was a hit with the target tween audience I saw it with. It's a very enjoyable mystery involving the paranormal, set up in a way that's complex but followable (maybe a bit too complex? I thought so at first, but in retrospect it all worked-- complexity just means you have to pay attention and engage your brain-- is that a bad thing?) and it has a logic that holds up and pays off in a satisfying way in the end. I believe the cause of the negative reactions in some of the other commenters here, as well as those of the professional critics, could be that in an intelligent story like this, much of the exposition and key plot points must be conveyed through dialogue and acting, and the subtleties of the acting craft are crucial. But, when you're on a budget, really good, experienced actors are hard to come by. But like I said, any sub-par acting didn't hinder my son's enjoyment of the film. He and his friends were not comparing it to Harry Potter, or any other film for that matter. The lead actress was very good. It's no small feat to carry a movie, and she did it nicely. Directing and cinematography were fine. Nothing screamed low-budget, and any noticeable differences in the "look" of the movie due to the DVCProHD format were not problematic, and really no more extensive than, say, 16mm blown up to 35mm. Of course, the kids (again, the target audience) didn't know the difference. There was a little graininess in a couple of dark interior scenes-- be we've all seen that in shot-on-film horror movies, so it didn't detract. Overall, a good job, and I applaud the filmmakers and distributor for taking the chance and bringing this movie to the big screen.

I was looking for something to watch that wouldn't require too much thought, something quick and fun, nothing too complicated. When I saw the 3/10 rating on IMDb, I almost didn't watch the movie. In the end, I still did, and I'm glad I did. It was nothing special, but I wanted to be entertained, and that's exactly what the movie did. Nothing less, nothing more.

As other people have mentioned, the movie is like a cross between Nancy Drew and a Goosebump episode. It's filmed cheaply, with unknown actors that don't deliver any ground-breaking performances, but the script is well put together and interesting. The intrigue is surprisingly captivating, and there are no slow parts, resulting in a fast-paced movie where you don't really have time to be bored or annoyed.

The 'horror' parts of the movie are extremely cliché, and somewhat funny because they fail to surprise, but for younger kids this is just enough, more would be too much. Everything falls into place a bit too easily during the movie and the ending is ridiculous, but until that point the unfolding of the story is great, if kept in mind that this is a thriller/mystery for children. The ending supposes there will be a continuation, and I do hope so.

It's fun to watch, just don't expect more than it is.

"Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour" was intended to be the start of a series of movies concerning a Nancy Drew-like young woman investigating mysterious phenomenons. To date, no further movies have been made about this character, and seeing this movie provides some strong clues as to why. Do you remember those ultra low budget shot on videotape movies that plagued video stores in the 1980s? Well, in many ways this movie seems like an homage to those efforts. There's really cheap cinematography, nothing really in the way of production values, a flat and boring feeling throughout, and almost no special effects (and the few that there are being really inexpensive). And while the movie's title has the supposed protagonist's name in it, we learn very little about this young woman, one reason being that the movie more often than not loses its focus on her and concentrates on other characters. It's hard to believe that this movie got a substantial theatrical release... until seeing that it was handled by Freestyle Releasing.

Hackneyed storytelling and insipid performances are the hallmarks of "Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour," an amateur-hour supernatural thriller that has all the professionalism and polish of an F-earning junior high school film project.

Sarah (Rissa Walters) is a 17-year-old girl who goes to stay with her recently deceased best friend's grandmother in a small mountain town in California. The minute she arrives at the place, she's plunged into a mind-numbing mystery story involving curses, avenging spirits, and a whole raft of poorly staged flashback sequences.

The actors read their lines as if they'd never performed for an audience before, either on stage or in front of a camera – which may indeed be the case with some of them – and Lisa Comrie demonstrates no more confidence as a director than the performers do as actors.

"Paranormal Hour" was the first in what was intended to be a series of mystery films with the Nancy Drew-like Sarah Landon character as the protagonist. Fortunately, given everything that it's had to put up with lately, the world was at least spared that fate.

It was nice to see a movie that a family can watch together.We enjoyed it,though we expected something else.Take the kids to see this one.Rarely does a movie like this come to the big screen (a "scary" movie that the whole family can enjoy).But,if you're an adult without kids you would probably rather go see something else.Judge for yourselves.Well,not much else I can say without ruining it.OH-the acting was TERRIBLE,but I still think that was forgivable since this is such a rare opportunity to see a "scary" movie that is NOT too scary for any age.It was truly refreshing for a family that doesn't allow the kids to watch inappropriate content.