La maison de l'étrange

This is a good example of a tv movie. The only qualms i have

would be the IDIOT son/brother and the fact that the synopsis calls

the 'faries' 'trolls' and this kind of confused me. But, overall it is a substantial example of the genre it represents... I would recommend it to anyone who wants to freak their kids out

JUST before bedtime.... kidding... kidding! a joke!

A family of four has moved into a new house that needs a real makeover. Out the back happens to be a fancy old looking playhouse, which the young daughter, Gina grows attach it. This is where she talks to her fairy friends and her parents (mother) believe she's just getting used to the move. Soon small, but dangerous accidents start occurring and Gina claims it's the fairies. To that response they seek the aid of a doctor who specialises in these cases, but is she telling the truth?

Two things were on my mind when I decided to give the film a view. That I'd be watching a haunted house flick and a real stinker too. The director, Kelly Sandefur brought us the laughably dumb and irritable family horror TV movie "Fangs (2001)". So I was in store for a childish themed movie. So there was another fact that wouldn't budge from my mind. Anyhow, I don't shoot me. I guess going in with extremely LOW expectations rubbed off nicely.

There's something about this ho hum fairy-tale family (yes, family-friendly) horror film that kept me more than occupied and rather surprised. I liked the concept behind it, although in the long run it's mechanical and there's a familiar pattern that developments. It seems to take its thunder from the likes of the third short story "The General" in the omnibus flick "Cat's Eye (1985)" and "Don't be Afraid of the Dark (1973)". The enchantingly, silly material has some imagination amongst its shallowness. It can get little rushed and over-stated in certain details. The mystery around "are they're real or not" isn't much, as we know how it's going to eventuate in first place.

Sandefur's direction is generic and lacks atmosphere, but workable with a certain professionalism and slickness coming off the cheap production. The quick flashes and ragged editing worked out when they showed glimpses of the nasty little critters. But when the main focus was on them the visual effects was a different story. The creative designs of the artful trolls are well crafted and so is the odd looking playhouse. In these TV movies the violence is lacking, and that's the scenario here. Most of it happens off screen and is very watered down. The scares are ineffective and you see them miles before they hit. What cues it up is an out-of-sorts score that doesn't translate well with the action and feel. The performances were shockingly above average with the likes of Patty McCormack and a manipulative toned down Malcolm McDowell leading the way. Megan Gallagher makes a potently strong heroine as the worried mother figure.

Yep, it's predictable. Throw in cheesy. Definitely risible. And how about a truckload of clichés. Oh, what a nice onslaught I can see you thinking. Despite that, it's hard not to be simply amused by it all.

I found it hard to recommend, as I thought it got me on a good night and I don't think I'm its target audience. It isn't aiming for anything big, but for an enjoyably relaxing viewing on the couch. I found it to be bemusedly watchable, PG b-grade horror.

A family of four moves into an old house with an even older 'doll house' in the backyard inhabited by the Huldre -- little troll-like people with an attitude. Fans of gore should look elsewhere, but those people with time enough to watch a relatively 'family-friendly' horror movie will not be disappointed. Other reviewers have called this a made-for-cable movie. If it is, I'm curious which channel produced it. It definitely has the feel of something that might have been produced for USA or TBS. It's not really scary, but it has a very professional veneer and solid performances. This film, however, falls apart at the end the same way so many other horror movies do by showing too much of the monsters. The Huldre seem fierce and mysterious when seen in short glimpses, but, when they are overexposed, you start to think you could take care of them all with a baseball bat.

When the Russell family invests all their savings and move to a huge old house, their young daughter Gina (Sofia Vassilieva) claims to have some small new friends, The Huldre, living in the doll house in the yard. Her reluctant mother believes it is fruit of Gina's imagination, but finally she accepts the advice of the schoolteacher and takes the girl to the psychiatrist Dr. Werner (Malcom McDowell). In the end, the family realizes that there are many Trolls living nearby their house. "Inhabited" is almost a good movie. The story has a good atmosphere, but the effects of the monsters are very poor and the conclusion of the plot is not good. In the end, "Inhabited" is nothing but a conventional horror B-movie of haunted house. One of the best movies about Trolls that I have seen is "Cat's Eye (1985)", in the module with a young Drew Barrymore. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa Do Medo" ("The House of the Fear")

I work in a video store - so generally I take home everything as it is free. Well this little anti-gem came in today and I thought it looked decent. Goblin like dwellers living in a house and looking all scary like, the premise seemed like it could have been creepy. But it was handled in every wrong way possible.

They focused more on dialog between characters we do not care about. It follows every cliche in the book(two cat jump out scenes in the first 15 minutes) and even then it does horribly. Traditionally, if you are going to use the old "sneak up behind someone" routine and cue the scary jump music, you do so in a way where the person sneaks up behind them. In this, they cue the scary music, and the woman jumps, but the guy doing the sneaking is slowly walking into the scene, it was downright hilarious.

And they do the thing that really bugs me a lot..the characters act as if they know it is a horror movie. In the very beginning, the mother stumbles across a doll with her head off, so after finding out the son didn't do it, she starts panicking like something horridly is the matter. Doesn't make much sense. And the fairies themselves just aren't done creepily at all. Just a bunch of evil dead style camera running, quick flashes of their faces, and a lot of skipped frames. The whole movie has a definite made for tv feel, although not nearly as scary as a made for tv movie. Rather than trying to make the movie creepy, they went the route of the film being nothing but a slow unravel as to what the things are and people involved in the past..but we don't care.