steve-862

I've read a lot of reviews and pretty much everyone has said it all. For me this is one of the biggest mistakes ever in film. Badly written, massive inconsistencies, plot holes, terrible character and story development and badly.........everything.

I watched a number of YouTube videos by fans who were predicting the story for 8 and even put some artwork together to represent some of the key scenes. Every single fan idea was better than the movie. Everything I guessed would happen myself, was a better idea than what actually happened in 8.

They (Disney) need to recognise they've got to make a 9th film based on what happened in this one. I don't think it can be done, even with the best story line in the history of film and TV.

I actually think they'd be better off scrapping this movie and remaking it with a different plot, different story, different scenes, different outcomes and different.......everything. They could draw in some of the loose ends from 7 and have a great project in 9 to look forward to.

As things stand I think fans will simply not bother seeing 9.

Not sure how this film scored 7.3 out of 10 at the time I wrote my review.

As I was finishing my review my 19 year old son asked me "are you really giving it two stars?". I think that sums it up. He thinks I am being too generous.

I saw this on Amazon Prime and was interested in the premise as well as the simple artwork cover for the film. It wasn't trying too hard to look scary.

I'd like to review it from a number of standpoints. Firstly the acting. Although I don't think I recognised any of the actors from other films or TV, all were credible and delivered very good performances. Quite often with lesser known films the performances are wooden. Not in this case.

The story is the strong point in my opinion. The premise is a group of enterprising young people rent or buy an obscure old hotel that has been closed for 20 years and make it into a haunted house attraction. Little do they know the old building has a back story and the details are well conceived. During the film new pieces of information come to light about the hotel's past.

The other strong point is the location. The building (appearance and layout) and the grounds (including the abandoned cars), are creepy and the attractions they add improve the overall effectiveness of the location.

The pacing and scares are about right and I get the impression the writer/director and crew are fans of the genre and wanted to get this right.

I think they've made a modern day classic and I think the location of the house will soon get some fan pages with pictures on. I'd go visit the outside if I wasn't 4000 miles away.

I don't want to say more about the film because it might spoil it.

It's quite possibly going straight into my top 10 horror films list. It's there are thereabouts.

There are many similarities between Dr Who and Merlin in terms of the way they are written. Like Dr Who Merlin features likable characters, moments of comedy and a little bit of tension that kids and grown ups can both enjoy.

There is good chemistry between the main characters. Good sets, decent special effects and each show works well on its own and as part of a series.

Don't pick too many holes in the factual details though. There are many ethnic groups in Uther's court, which probably wasn't truly representative of the population of England at that time in history. But hey, magic doesn't really exist so why not make a new TV show that has its auditions open to any actor regardless of ethnic background.

I think Merlin will run for at least another series. It would be a shame if it didn't continue. Whatever the future holds for the show the excellent Colin Morgan has a bright career ahead of him.