The St. Francisville Experiment

I know a lot of people seem to have a passionate hatred for this film. After all, it was made to cash in on the success of The Blair Witch Project. But to be fair, the film industry does this all the time, taking a popular film and its ideas & themes, then running them completely into the ground.

But who really cares about that crap, as long as the film is good. I do not claim to possess an intricate knowledge of filmmaking; I simply like what I like and don't care if other people laugh at me and think I'm stupid for enjoying what they consider bad cinema.

When I first watched The St. Francisville Experiment in college with a couple of my friends, I was totally drawn into the film. For the hour+ that it was on I was completely engrossed in the goings on of the four characters as they try to determine whether or not the house is haunted. Granted, the acting certainly wasn't Oscar-caliber, but the cast was believable enough to keep my attention for the duration of the film. They exuded enough of a naive charm that I found them likeable and wanted them to come out of the house unscathed.

Perhaps most important of all involving a haunted house film was that I found the film scary. It's been quite a while since I've felt fear from watching a film, having my skin break out in goosebumps. And this movie did it for me, and I can't thank them enough.

Ripoff or not, I like this film! It has believable characters, a cool back story based on true events, eerie atmosphere, and an overall feeling of doom and horror. I like this film even more than The Blair Witch Project (which is itself somewhat of a ripoff of Cannibal Holocaust), and I am not ashamed to say that.

I thought this move was truly horrid. It was a blatant Blair Witch xerox, trying to ride the coattails of an already poor movie. Please do not waste your hard earned money renting or buying this movie. Cheech & Chong movies have better taste.

This movie sucked so hard that initially words just escape me. It was despicable, deplorable, atrocious, un-called for, and absolutely without a shadow of a doubt terrible. The acting was so overdone and cheesy. I feel that renting this movie and investing time in it until the end, took a part of my life and soul that I will never be able to get back. Honestly I would have rather watched grass grow in slow motion. Furthermore, I feel that this movie was a blind attempt to recreate the Blair Witch Project which I must say now seems awesome compared to St. Francisville. I advise everyone to stay as far away as possible from this movie to avoid tragic disappointment.

I have liked films by Ted Nicolaou in the past, but this will not rank as one of them.

I give this this movie one star - strictly on the fact that they told the real New Orleans story of Madame LaLaurie.

Watching the Blair Witch rip-off "The St. Francisville Experiment (2000)" and this movie is just so bad it's laughable. One guy walks around saying "I love the ghosts" to stay positive, a girl is a total basket case the entire time, at one point she exclaims, "Omg a dead bird! and the other girl asks, "How dead is it?" All the actors are terrible, and the screenplay is atrocious. I think the only good thing I can say about this movie is, nope I got nothing.

Every thing the characters did in The St Francisville Experiment contradicted everything else they did or said at each moment... they are introduced as serious investigator friends, but it becomes clear in the first scene in the house they don't know each other at all and are complete amateurs, then one says to share all their feelings, so the one girl says a prayer by herself for herself which suddenly everyone is okay with, then they say as long as we stick together we should be able to handle this, so what do they do? They split up to go cleanse the house, all the rooms simultaneously... This movie was like that contradiction poem we heard as little kids, the one that goes... admission is free pay at the door, grab a chair and sit on the floor... this was the absolute contradiction haunting movie.

The climax itself had such potential, but just left me feeling upset.

Spoilers Ahead ---------------------------------------------- So many clichés and contradictions in this film, from the totally healthy cat that jumps out of an Armoire, a falling chandelier, non-cohesive emotions from scene to scene, saying lets stick together because that's how we'll be successful here, then splitting up, saying lets share all of our emotions so one girl prays by herself? The ending has one room shaking, an arm reaches for one girl, that was dull, another gets dragged, they find the guy who was in the attic, chained in the basement hidden medical room, and Ryan tied to a table? The only ghost you see is a bit of mist that quickly dissipates....

Episodes of Ghost Adventures are scarier than this movie.

I cannot recommend this movie to anyone.

1/10

I think the people behind this "true" documentary film saw both The Blair Witch Project and the Fox Family Channel Special of "The Scariest Places on Earth" in the same day. Sorry guys, but this was not as entertaining as 3 people being stalked in the woods, or a family locked inside of an English castle for the night. My thoughts:

• Madison is more annoying than Heather ever was.

• Somebody just needed to tell Ryan to shut up.

• If Paul stood on the stairs one second longer contemplating aboug going back into the attic...I would've thrown a chair at him.

• You should've rehearsed the "spontaneity" of the ending more

• The house looked as if the family living there had gone out to grab take-out and would be back any second.

On the upside though, Tim is a real cutie.

Next time out, leave the 3 students alone, and let Linda Blair handle the "family locked inside a haunted house for the night" concept, and come up with an idea that is actually yours.

My grade: D-