Reclusion

I love films like this that surprise me with their originality and filmmaking. Though this is a budget film the director, Norman Lesperance, does an absolutely wonderful job of creating a decent horror movie.

Which makes me wonder why this has such a low rating on IMDb, especially when the reviewers give it favourable reviews... just like myself. I'd like to know why the viewers are rating it so low.

Tim played wonderfully by Mitch Holden, is an agoraphobic unable to leave his home and hardly speaks to people and is nearly incapable of acting and reacting to people. Thanks to his neighbours Tim and Joan, nicely portrayed by Nicholas Bianchi (who wrote the script) and Chelsea Gilligan respectively, he is slowly coerced out of his reclusive lifestyle.

As time passes, we begin to see that not only is the house where a supernatural event occurred but it affected his wife and daughter; his wife died and his daughter ran away. There are secrets and surprises abound as the audience learns about power residing in the house and what it's capable of.

This is a very well acted strong story of supernatural and paranormal incidents that adds to both haunted house and possession mythologies.

This is not a fast action packed CGI special effects laden venture. It is an atmospheric and unnerving affair that makes you think.

This is definitely a film to watch with the lights on low while wrapped up in your lover's arms.

If you've watched The Haunting Of Hill House and enjoyed it then you will probably like this film too.

A nice eerie film.

I watch a great deal of horror films and thought this was going to be another of those in the "okay" category at best. However I was pleasantly surprised.

The basic story is that a mans wife dies by apparently supernatural causes. After 19 years he becomes a recluse, never setting foot out side his house, which still appears to have unexplained phenomena occurring. Then the young couple next door start doing shopping and such for him, and become drawn into the mystery

A few people have mentioned production values, but I don't agree. If the story telling and direction is good enough it doesn't need big fancy special effects, indeed they often detract from the story. There are some genuinely creepy moments throughout the film. The acting is excellent, the story has an original twist and the directing is fine. It's hard to say much more without giving away any plot points.

My only pieces of criticism would be, one of the plot twists is fairly obvious and much used.

The story becomes a little muddied in the middle, and you never really seem to find out how the couple next door originally became involved, or their intended role.

The ending is just a little disappointing, and felt inconclusive.

But all in all I really enjoyed the ride with this one.

So kid is suspect of something odd going on in her room., mommy goes to investigate and gets sucked under the bed. Daddy, pops some pills, and goes to sleep.... okay what is going on? Not sure...

This quickly descends into a lot of non witty dialogue, and pretty much pure boredom. Dad is getting assaulted by some spirit that seems to attack him in his sleep.

Okay and I got lost somewhere because now a hot girl is getting tormented as well. And I don't know why I thought the focus was on the father.

Okay I couldn't keep up nor handle it. I think maybe it was just over my head. But I am still giving it a score!

2/10.

But not much. Had this low budget movie been edited and sequenced differently, it could have been a 6 or 7. It's like the writer knows how all the parts are meant to fit together and can't see they've made if too difficult for the audience. Or they didn't know how it all fit, and wants the viewers to put it together. Too esoteric, but not worthy of that level of audience critiquing. Well acted. And pretty well filmed. The scenes are spot on atmospherically. But the director has pretty much the same atmosphere with indoor scenes shot elsewhere...movie would be more powerful if the institutional and office scenes were clear, crisp, more sterile and less muted. It really needed a scene where much of the history and current happenings are explained. I know this can be unsubtle, but it might make the plot richer.

This suuuuuuuucked!!! Nothing ever happened..? The idea was good just poor execution.. not scary at all.. every time you think something cool is about to happen it doesnt. Nothing explained,no real ending, no thrill, nothing! I was falling asleep the whole time.. Basically a movie about how a guy sleeps..