Le bijou maudit

What is there to say? It's a predictable ghost story with viewers are miles ahead as far as the plot is concerned. Twists are signalised from a kilometre away and scares are non-existent. So is there anything to redeem this movie? Well... Lindsay Price is sexy and does a bang-up job as a lead in this TV movie. Sure would want to see more of her, as she conveys emotions and really makes her presence felt. Apart from that nothing to really admire, but the movie isn't dumb, is nicely shot and hence deserves a solid 4/10.

You can definitely pass on this movie. Nihil novi. Would definitely benefit from calling in the Ghostbusters.

The set up of this film has so much wasted potential it actually makes me angry. Almost angry enough to just go and write my own.

An inherited house on an isolated island near Boston, a cursed bloodline, and an artist who is way too found of the place. The families bloodline got cursed because of shady secrets from the past. How did they make this not scary??? It literally has no tension or scary moments.

Like this set up writes itself to any horror fan. But instead we got asking nicely, magic crystals, and everything will be okay. No tension everything is all okay and happy!?? Like did Halmark right this or something happy and bright.

Which I'm sure there's a market for, but not something as a horror fan I remotely want.

Since this is a television movie the subject matter has been toned down. This would have made a good average budget DVD release movie and could have handled the matter a little more accordingly.

That said, the director, Jean-Claude Lord (who directed Visiting Hours (1982) and Second Chances (2010) - reviewed in my blogs), does an amiable job with the story by John Benjamin Martin and Donald David Martin.

This is a ghost story, but due to lack of horror elements and the amount of time it takes to get to the ghostly action, it is more of a drama. This has so much of a TV movie feel to it. The characters are stereotypical; you can see the twists coming; and the characters relationships are pretty standard and have been done a thousand times before. Nevertheless, the actors and the director do make the film watchable... and at times, enjoyable.

Lindsey Price who plays the lead role of Nikki Wickersham gives a passable rendition of a troubled woman who loses her husband, though it's not played as a tear-jerker. Nikki's friend, Margie Mancuso (played by Sadie LeBlanc) and her handyman boyfriend (Niall Matter) are pretty realistic and believable, to a point - this is a TV Movie, after all.

It's the lack of direction the story takes which is a stalling point for the film. It sits uncomfortably between, drama, thriller, mystery, and horror. This makes it a bland affair, had the writers or the director chosen just one path to take this could have been better. It needed to be spookier with more tension. The mysterious elements could have been heightened and extended upon. Because the cause of the haunting is hateful, terrible, and unpleasant it was required to be much darker than portrayed here.

If there's nothing on the telly and hell has frozen over, then you could do worse than watch this film.

The only real problem about this film is its potential. it could be a good horror. but the story is ignored and the decent premises are transformed in a mix of bizarre salad. and that transforms it in a sort of parody, or only too unconvincing movie. something seems fake from the first half of it. but, sure, a painter, her friend, the past of the family of husband and , step by step, revelations. and,after its final credits, the only regret is about the less courage of director to say a decent story.

Based on who funded this film (skip to the end and watch the list of logos) you get basically what you expect. It takes an interesting premise, which should be suitable for a horror mystery, and turns it into self-parody. But not intentionally, and that's the problem. The accents weren't believable to me, and seemed to come and go. There were some laugh-out-loud moments, like the various times the local nut tells our heroine to use crystals for answers or protection. That works in many films, but here it was just laughable. Anyway, not to beat a dead horse, but don't waste your time unless you look at it as a MST3K experience.