The St. Francisville Experiment

Never in my movie watching experience have I ever seen a picture so horrible. This poor excuse for a horror film is deplorable. The over-acting by each of the cast members would cause Bella Lugosi to roll in his grave! The effects are all cheap and staged as well as the dialog. This film should be taken off the shelves and burned at the stake. To anyone who went to the theaters or rented this (yours truly included) we should demand Hollywood use this film as a standard to never, never let a movie be this bad.

As the only person who has watched this in 14 years (thank you pandemic) I recommend steering clear. This movie was horrific, some of the least like able characters I've ever seen, and that's 50% of a found footage film.

I do not understand where this budget went as there were no special effects and terrible makeup. The acting was AWEFUL, they actually laughed during the movie as a testament to how bad the plot was.

Very cringe filled movie.

I watched this movie last night, it was horrible. They took what could have been a scary situation, and made it stupid. The women were much more annoying than the guys, because they were all stereotypes of people. Madison kept talking about the "white light" that surrounded them, but no one ever asked what she was talking about, they just let her go with it. And after a few "purifications" that obviously didn't work they decide on the classic cliche of splitting up, and trying them seperated from each other?!?!?. The scares were all jumpy scares "oh no something jumped out in front of me", nothing with actual fright value. There are also scenes where doors open for people....and they go in them! And spaces open in the floor, or they find a hole and they STICK THEIR HANDS IN THEM WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO SEE!! Yeah right... Also the fact that people lived in the house, and yet these people didn't get rid of the "bloody medical equipment" in the basement, or seal up a hole in the wall, make it seem more staged. And finally they are standing in the house for five minutes before they try turning on a light, when I, a normal person, go into a house that's the first thing I do.

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.

A "Blair Witch" ripoff involving four people who go ghost hunting in a supposedly haunted Louisiana mansion. Unlike the gem it's ripping off, there is nothing frightening here unless you consider bad acting to be scary. This is truly a film where nothing happens. The only refuge from pure boredom is the occasional unintentional hilarity that pops up. For instance, we get some priceless dialogue like this choice exchange:

"There's a dead bird." "How badly dead is it?"

This thing is also notable for having what is probably the stupidest cat jump scare I've ever seen. I can't forget the bit towards the end where the group splits up, and the guy going into the attic keeps complaining about how scary it looks in there. The others then spend what feels like at least ten minutes trying to convince him to go in. How exciting!