Living with the rest of his dysfunctional family, the undertaker of a small village finds their lives being invaded by the restless spirits of those he's trying to prepare for their eternal rest, but when he becomes aware of a series of hauntings around their house he tries to understand why to save his family.
This was a solid if slightly flawed effort. This one gets a lot to like with the cold and chilling atmosphere present here that manages to feature some wholly creepy ideas throughout here. The slow introduction to the spirits in the house and what they're trying to do with the family is pretty well-handled, as they spend enough time comparing the stress of the situation to how they're trying to get by in life which is upended by the ghostly activity present there in the house. When they keep escalating through the various poltergeist antics throughout here, from the glimpses of them outside looking into the rooms or trying to break down doors to get at them, it's far more chilling knowing that these attacks are being built up to something impressive. This becomes far more enjoyable in the second half here where the supernatural attacks are far more chilling and impressive overall. As the attacks are given more credence with the attack on the mother within the bathroom which signals the start of the fun with the interactions involving the spirit medium trying to help them realize what's going on. These scenes pick up the action at a much steadier and more enjoyable pace involving the true reason for the hauntings and what the demons haunting them are really after leading to some pretty fun chases around the house leading to a lot to like. All of which feature plenty of strong make-up work in the ghosts and a few brutal kills, overall there's a lot to recommend. This one does have some issues. The main problem to be had here is the slow-burn atmosphere that makes the ghost action quite chilling as what happens during these scenes is so laid-back that it all feels quite tame. This one doesn't tend to differentiate between any of the various encounters or attacks and how they're living their lives in the house so nothing stands out beyond the suddenness of the ghost appearing and feeling out-of-place because of this development, resulting in scenes where it's obvious that there's not much happening due to the overall lack of action taking place with an obvious focus in the first half on the family drama living at the house. That brings about the second issue here where it's really difficult to get to care about anyone in the family or their issues which don't seem that interesting or original. Featuring an angsty teenage daughter who's still upset over the r\ecent loss of her dad and taking issue with the new living arrangement between everyone, a down-on-his-luck henpecked husband who seems more dedicated to work than anything and a quiet, introverted mother who doesn't speak up when she should, the family drama at the beginning of the film is a bit tough to get into with this dreary pacing to get going. Combined with a confusing ending that doesn't make much sense considering the action that's gone on before, these are what hold this one back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence and Brief Nudity.
