Haunt

Nothing really special here, a story about a haunted house, two characters that weren't quite exploited enough, scares that came so late and soft, a twist that didn't manage to stand tall.

It wanted to be something, you can clearly see it tried, but somewhere, it failed, somewhere along the plot development, when they tried to make it more than it could be. In the end it is a movie about a haunted house, so don't get your hopes too high, cause originality is something too hard to achieve, working around with just 2 actors make the viewer feel deserted, and scares that won't come when they suppose to, leave him even more alone.

Not so many reasons to recommend this one: yes, average horror at its best, a somewhat effort put into it, but still, it falls flat. Sorry to say so.

It will come down to everyone's personal opinion, but all horror movie fans, will feel that they didn't get the larger slice here.

I read about Haunt today in Fangoria Magazine and it really sounded like a cut above many of the genre films. Well, I looked it up, got my hands on a copy of it and sat down to see if it would give me some chills and thrills. No such luck.

For a ghost story that's complete with a haunted house, box that allows the living to communicate with the dead, and a pretty decent looking spirit, this is a complete snoozer. If I thought the first half was tedious and dull, the second half didn't really improve on that much.

A family moves into a house that has a history of several other family members dying there. How did they die? Why did they die? Why are the hauntings starting up again? Those questions are lost as viewers ask questions like do the parents actually have jobs or are they independently wealthy? The parents don't mind when a girl who shows up and starts bunking with their teenage son?

Truly, it's agony pointing out the plot holes because there are a huge number of them. There's a tiny bit of tension here and there, some of which is ruined by those lovely jarring scare noises when something happens on screen. It's just a sign of director who doesn't trust what he's putting in front of us to do the trick.

Simply put, don't waste your time. Haunt is a snoozer.

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.

Very similar in look and feel to "The Conjuring" (2013) and "Insidious" (2010) but with central characters that are teenagers rather than adults. The similarities make it feel a bit formulaic, but it's a good formula. Scary and frightening like a haunted house movie (the movie's self-aware opening narration describes itself as a ghost story) ought to be, its intensity is too much for PG-13 but lacks the explicit violence and gore typical for R. Three jump moments were quite effective, which again indicates a PG-13 level of scariness, but the overall creepiness of the unfolding mystery is even more compelling. Rather than coming apart in the third act, the movie features a complete ending that wraps up and justifies the story. Kudos to the prop maker who created the vacuum tube-era radio box, one of the creepiest "characters" in the story. This movie is well-made, scary, and a welcome addition to the modern horror genre.