Ghostquake, la secte oubliée

I had expected a low-budget made-for-TV SyFy feature, this is why I'll generously award this campy feature 3 stars. One simply cannot watch a movie like this and expect a high quality production, however viewers deserve to not face-palm themselves every 4 minutes.

"Low budget", as most of us cinemaphiles know, is not a valid excuse for bad writing, bad acting, and... bad everything.

The plot is like cheap fishnet stockings... covered with holes, transparent, and weak. Sadly, not as attractive. Some of the scenes are so illogical it's frustrating.

A better screenplay, set and directing would have lent this mess some respectability because the concept itself is very intriguing. It's a good idea with potential, gone wrong.

There are some unique kills, and I wasn't really distracted by overly bad CGI like in some comparable productions. I was too distracted by poorer qualities, I suppose.

The dialog is so bad, it exceeds description. The bad puns tossed out by our antagonist before each kill were insufferable. Even if they were aiming to be campy, it still failed.

I've seen better acting at middle school Thanksgiving pageants. The worst performance (arguably) was offered by Shawn C. Philips. He's no stranger to the horror genre. Perhaps he just did the best he could with the material he had? It's all terrible waste of several proved talents. Please do not judge the actors exclusively by this feature if you happen to be unfamiliar with their other work.

If you're a fan of other Sy-Fy channel movies and are prepared for their usual shortcomings, you may not be disappointed. Admittedly, this is not their worst work nor their best.

I normally do not considered the rating given by IMDb visitor about the movie, however, on this particular movie, I should say that the rating was too much on the high side. The rating should be max 1.

I was tempted to watch this movie because of Charisma Carpenter was mentioned as on of the star. If you are talking about using somebody's name to sell your movie, this is a very good example. Charisma did appear, although in a total scene of less than 1 minutes. I don't even know why she accepted this part, it is really degrading.

When you see a ghost movie, you expect something that is scary, but on this one due to the bad story and strange script, you do not feel the fear. Instead it is a hollow feeling, like if you want a very unromantic love story.

One of the ghost action which I can not understand is how it is possible that you have a collapse building on one section of the school and the rest of the building seems okay and of course to follow the title, the ghost will have the incredible power of shaking the building like an earthquake. An of course the usual light that is always flickering when you are entering a room in a ghost story is there.

A movie is basically a collection of acts being put together by a director to make sense out of this collection. There is a recipe for each type of movie. But if you do a terrible mixed, then what you will get is a make up story with something supposed to be scary but end up being funny.....

I give 1 out of 10, because there is no zero or more for the effort of making something so bad to annoy other people.....

High school senior Jonathan Baron (as Quentin Smith) agrees to help a history teacher in the boiler room. They drop some mystical gold coins Mr. Baron inherited from his grandfather, which causes the old man's spirit to appear. Ghostly grandfather M.C. Gainey (as Lionel Danforth) causes earthquakes in the New England private school. Baron's girlfriend Lauren Pennington (as Whitney Douglas) starts seeing things. People get slaughtered - in very violent ways. Wizened janitor Danny Trejo (as Ortiz) joins the students in battling Mr. Gainey...

In featured roles, thin Marc Donato (as Colt) and thick Shawn Phillips (as Blake) overextend their years in high school. Sexy librarian Charisma Carpenter is seen briefly. The opening credit sequence is a highlight, but the accompanying song - a re-write of Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go" - could stir the rock 'n' roll star's once protective lawyers into action. The special effects aren't too bad, for this sort of thing. However, the TV Movie earns a failing grade as director Jeffery Scott Lando and his crew can't turn the effects into an engaging story.

*** Haunted High (8/25/12) Jeffery Scott Lando ~ Jonathan Baron, Lauren Pennington, M.C. Gainey, Danny Trejo

Given this is a SyFy Channel movie, the movie already have odds stacked against it. But every now and then these original SyFy Channel movies do surprise. However, I will say that "Haunted High" wasn't a surprise. Not even with a nice ensemble of actors and actresses as the movie has.

The story in "Haunted High" is about an evil headmaster who returns from beyond the grave to wreck havoc, torment and kill students at the high school. And it is up to the janitor and the students to put an end to the vile spirit and his entourage of ghostly followers.

It was so difficult to buy into the whole concept of the movie, because the storyline was so badly constructed and even worse brought to life on the screen. The ghosts were a little bit too real - too manifested in the flesh - to appear believable as ghosts or supernatural entities. And the death scenes were, most of the time, laughable.

There weren't a single scare or thrilling moment throughout the entire movie. Unless you consider seeing Danny Trejo for the first time in the movie as a thrill.

But for fans of the lower budget horror movies, then there is a good handful of familiar faces to be seen here. At least thumbs up for this ensemble of actors and actresses.

If you enjoy ghosts/haunting movies, then "Haunted High" is not recommendable. I rate this movie a mere 2 out of 10 stars. It was a real drag to sit through this movie, because it took forever to get nowhere. And most of the scenes that were supposed to be scary or menacing, just came off as spoofy scenes.

The story for this movie is hardly going to win any awards and it sets the scene for mediocrity which really underpins this movie.

Danny Trejo could have phoned it in for a movie like this but didnt he really put the effort in, unfortunately he was the only good part of the acting in this movie. Most of the acting was pretty meh and the headmaster and female teacher he goes around with are pretty awful, and whats worse get a good amount of screentime each.

The effects were certainly done on a budget but at the end of the day this is a horror movie which fundamentally doesnt scare you. It has a few 'jumps' which of course all the worst horror movies confuse with scary and thats it really.

Its nowhere near the worst I have ever seen and for a lazy afternoon viewing it could be worse but I wouldnt suggest it was a movie worth seeking out.