La maison hantée

haven't seen this one for a while but unlike tons of other films this one remains quite vivid in my head. it's tense with well developed characters, creative and most importantly, effective! saw this when i was about ten and it blew my mind. the whispering pillows, the grandmothers voice coming from the basement. chilling stuff. a few bits might be a little hokey to some people but i remember being pretty disturbed by the "ghost rape". it just came out'a nowhere. also, i thought the apparitions were chilling as well. i remember the "black spot" didn't do much for me then so i know now that it is probably quite lame. but otherwise this flick is just dead on and a lot of fun. oh yeah, and i can't forget that part when they pull up to the house and flames are blazing inside and those screams! if you like a damn good ghost story then check this out if you can. no "official" DVD release yet but i guess it is shown on cable occasionally. have to keep our fingers crossed for the DVD i guess.

I was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, PA. I was in high school when this was going on. There was a story in the local papers like everyday. It was so weird. Some believed the Smurls and some, of course, did not. Personally, I believed them for the most part. Why would anyone subject themselves with the kind of ridicule they had to endure? Not to mention my personal experiences with the supernatural (which are stories within themselves). This movie may not be a very good movie (however, I wouldn't say it was bad either), but it was frightening to me, because I was relatively close to the true story. One of my best friends lives in West Pittston, in fact the next street over from where the Smurls once lived. Although I didn't know the Smurls personally, my friend did. She used to be good friends with the oldest daughter and went to high school with her. My friend had told me stories about their house that she remembered from before it became public knowledge. She had been over the house many a time. She claims to have witnessed some strange goings on there, however nothing major. Some strange things even allegedly went on at her house after she was over there. As to how much truth there is to the Smurls' claims, I don't really know. As far as the movie is concerned, it's not great, but not half bad for a TV movie. It was spooky whether or not one was close to the actual events or not. As I've heard many Northeast Pennsylvanians complain about how they mispronounced Wilkes-Barre; that is one thing that makes me squirm probably more than anything else in the film. I realize for people living anywhere else, they would not know..but if your making a film revolving around any city, you'd think the filmmakers would make an effort to get it right. I've heard people from the area pronounce it different ways, but not "Wilkes-Bar"! "Wilkes-BERRY" (most common) or Wilkes-Bear-Ah..even Wilkes-BEAR. It may seem trivial, but it's rather cringeworthy to the natives of the area. And the set they used; they made it look like some 'happy-swell-meadows' neighborhood. It looks nothing like that...it's much more urban. All the houses are close together. I do realize that having room to shoot is a factor in making a movie, but this was way more suburban than it was. There was one night just a few years ago, I drove past the old Smurl house to show some out of area friends. That night after I got home, the lamp in the room I was staying in at my parents house just started flickering out of nowhere. My father checked it out but found nothing wrong with the lamp or the circuit. Qhite bizarre. One thing that sticks in my mind about this movie is the fact that they had the same pattern of sheets that I do!!! Freaky!!!! Overall, this movie was far from a great ghost story flick, but it was spooky, and I may only feel that way, because I was in that area when these things were allegedly happening. That's why I say, "I guess you had to be there".

I really liked The Haunted (tv-movie) & every time it is on I watch it. I scare really easily so I was scared while I watched it. I also thought that Sally Kirkland did a good job with her role as well. I love movies about the supernatural & the paranormal whether they are true or made up, I like them all.

A fantastic and atmospheric horror film which relies more on psychological terror than special effects and typical hollywood formulaic scares. It's based on a true story which was investigated by the Warrens and made into a pretty convincing book. Though the movie is obviously "toned down" for tv, the horror grows from an expertly directed series of scenes which portray a strengthening tension and increasing level of stress in the characters who are plagued by terrible circumstances. It's well done. A good friend o mine was actually one of the Warren's students, and I've dealt with them professionally in the past, so I can assure you they're not kooks. For example, they are high on the list of people law enforcement uses to advise on crimes of an extraordinary nature. This is serious business... and trust me, you see this film, you'll rest a bit uneasy that night! Cheers!

I loved the movie. It was scary, not overdone in terms of special effects, and had what I believe to be a strong element of truth. The actors who portrayed the family were believable and likable, which added to the possibility that hauntings may actually occur, and that they might actually occur to nice, normal people. This possibility actually increases the "creep-factor," because if it can happen to that nice, all-American devoutly Catholic family, it can happen to anyone! On the negative side, though, I don't put as much stock in the self-proclaimed demonologist duo, the Warrens, as some (what with all that unfortunate Amityville-being-a-hoax business). Their involvement in the case makes me think "hoax." But the film itself was worthwhile and good for a nice scare--regardless of whether or not it was a hoax.