The St. Francisville Experiment

I thought this move was truly horrid. It was a blatant Blair Witch xerox, trying to ride the coattails of an already poor movie. Please do not waste your hard earned money renting or buying this movie. Cheech & Chong movies have better taste.

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!

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.

This movie sucked so hard that initially words just escape me. It was despicable, deplorable, atrocious, un-called for, and absolutely without a shadow of a doubt terrible. The acting was so overdone and cheesy. I feel that renting this movie and investing time in it until the end, took a part of my life and soul that I will never be able to get back. Honestly I would have rather watched grass grow in slow motion. Furthermore, I feel that this movie was a blind attempt to recreate the Blair Witch Project which I must say now seems awesome compared to St. Francisville. I advise everyone to stay as far away as possible from this movie to avoid tragic disappointment.

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.