Boo

I was happy to rent "Boo" after reading that it was from the same producer as "Dog Soldiers," which I found wonderfully relentless. While "Dog Soldiers" is on my list of films to buy, I soon found "Boo" to be tedious. It is the sort of movie I began to watch in bits for it was becoming too aggravating to sit through in one stretch. While I appreciate horror films made on a small budget (and therefore, it can be assumed, made out of a passion for the genre and not a mere eye on box office returns), recent films, such as "Boo," rely on SUDDEN LOUD NOISES to elicit their scare moments. (It's the new 'screeching cat leaping out' gimmick.) This film made me jump once. However, when a film uses a LOUD NOISE or sudden ghost/killer reveal a second time, the impact is usually lessened, and when this happens a THIRD time, and then again, the 'scares' become predictable for the audience now knows the rhythm of the film, that whenever there's a quiet moment, there will be a JOLT, or whenever a character is about to move out of frame, the ghost/killer will be standing there. And really, what suspense can be given to a film when there is an overuse of a creepy little girl suddenly, without actually moving, advancing toward another character, accompanied by A LOUD SOUND. The squeaking, slowly moving wheelchair was much more effective for then a sense of dread was built, a 'What's going to happen?' apprehension. JOLTS just become numbing, and then boring.

I can forgive bad acting but there are certain true reactions to which we can all relate and when a character does not REACT the way that we would, that is when the amateurish performance becomes distracting. If my girlfriend/boyfriend or best friend is murdered, my reaction is horror and anger; in this film, there is shock (and one character gets very upset and weepy) but then everyone just seems to gloss over this and resumes looking for a way to escape the hospital. The murder then becomes a mere plot device, another 'reanimated dead' complication for our remaining cast to soon deal with.

Great use of a particular costume however, and it's always wonderful to see Dee Wallace Stone on screen.

A group of friends trapped in an abandoned building is hardly original, but this movie actually had a deeper story that was pretty good and would have served as a fine framework for a horror flick.

Parts of this movie were really good (like an 8), but unfortunately much of it was also a 4. It just wasn't consistent. Some of the horror elements and effects, for example, were very creative and creepy, but many were also bland, like a body on a gurney under a sheet sitting up. *Yawn. The acting too ranged from pretty good to pretty not good.

Overall, while a good story, it was a bit disjoint, skipping around a lot and hard to follow. Too much of it felt like someone walking through a haunted house going from one scare station to another and not really connected well to the story. Also, the dude-popping-up-behind-you scenes are okay in a handful or less, but I think there was about 20 of those.

In totality this probably isn't a 6, but it does have those few moments that were really well crafted and worth a watch. If those moments could have been consistent throughout and there had been another round of editing, this could have been really good.

A group of teens decide to go party in an abandoned hospital on Halloween. Unfortunately for them, the place is haunted by some very nasty ghosts who don't want them to leave. "Boo" is a decent genre flick, but ultimately it disappoints. The performances are mediocre at best, the script is pedestrian and first-time scribe/director Anthony C. Ferrante (a former Fangoria writer) relies too heavily on predictable pop scares throughout most of the film (though to his credit the flashback sequences were very well-shot). There's nice gore content and the special effects are often very good (loved the skinned dog thing), unfortunately these are too sparse and insubstantial to give the film the push it needed. "Boo" is by no means a bad movie, it's simply too mediocre to deliver on it's initial promise. Could have been much, much worse though… 5.5/10.

I give this one 2 stars because there are some commendable special effects and the director (editor?) has a good feel of how to put the footage together to get a nice "jump" out of you. Also... the set (an abandoned hospital) is nicely done and quite spooky (if cliché).

However...

EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT THIS MOVIE SUCKS.

I read someone on here say that the acting was good. Dear god in heaven. There is NO ONE ON THIS PLANET who would say that other than someone who worked on this movie. I couldn't BELIEVE how bad the acting was. What gets me... is when I see acting this bad... it makes me think that ANYONE OFF THE STREET could act better than these people... but then I think.... thats EXACTLY who these people are. Wannabes off the street who have NO BUSINESS ACTING. My god. It was so painful I stopped the disc 3 times over a course of 3 days. I simply couldn't get through it.

The writing is so bad... I just cant even think of words to describe it. Trite. Contrived. Boring. Uninspired. Unoriginal. I honestly... feel so drained of my life energy by this movie... I don't even want to talk about it anymore.

If you are a TRUE HORROR FAN. PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Heed my warning and AVOID THIS DRIVEL. I wish I could think of something as bad as this to compare it to... but... this makes movies like... "The Unnamable" and "Street Trash" look like "Citizen Kane". Do yourself a favor... kill yourself instead. It will be less painful...regardless of the method you choose.

The friends Emmett (Happy Mahaney), Freddy (Josh Holt), Marie (Nicole Rayburn), Kevin (Jilon Ghai) and his reluctant girlfriend Jessie (Trish Coren) decide to spend the Halloween night in an abandoned hospital. Meanwhile, the younger Allan (Michael Samluk ) meets the old friend of his father Arlo Ray Baines (Dig Wayne) and asks him to help to find his vanished sister Meg (Rachel Melvin) in the same spot. The two groups meet each other in the mental institution section on the haunted third floor and they find that they are trapped in the place. Jessie has visions from the past and discovers that the ghost of Jacob (M. Steven Felty), a former patient that raped a little girl and burned the hospital, is trying to escape possessing their bodies that melt down with his evil spirit.

"Boo" is a messy ghost story, with a confused screenplay and poor development of characters, especially Jessie. This lead character and her relationship with her mad mother are the key point of the story, but their stories are awfully disclosed. Further, the character Kevin acts like an annoying moron. The group using an old elevator that works in an abandoned building is ridiculous. However, I startled in some moments with the eerie atmosphere. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Hospital Maldito" ("Damned Hospital")