The Bell Witch Haunting

This is one of the worst films I have ever watched. It is very predictable. The film is not believable whatsoever. It is not scary,and was done in an amateurish on all fronts. The creators claim that this film is based on true events. Really? The only true event being that someone went to Best-Buy and purchased a video camera. A purchase in which must have come with a free copy of some obscure video editing software. I'm sure it was the lite version at that. Horror video documentaries are good when done right. Sadly, there are no original ideas here. While the director attempts to make up for the lack of substance with gratuitous nudity, even that is done poorly. The story line of this film tries to portray a blending of paranormal activity and the Blair witch project. Save your time and money by spending it watching cat video's on you-tube.

This was not good. In fact, it's a good example to demonstrate that just throwing together all of the typical ingredients of a good one doesn't necessarily work. This movie veers wildly between not showing enough in some scenes (long shots of empty rooms with somebody screaming off-camera, for which we sometimes never get any hint of the reason.) It's inconsistent and pays no attention to continuity. The pacing is bad, with no escalation of tension. People start wandering around in dazes more often and crying more often, but it still manages to not build tension.

To any filmmakers who happen to read these comments on movies like this - it isn't always a bad thing to be derivative. Go ahead and make a knock-off of the Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity. There are others like me who don't care about originality. But please, make it good. It doesn't have to be novel, but it does have to work.

This movie gets an extra star out of me for the unintended hilarity. Whilst my girlfriend sat transfixed, I either chuckled quietly or laughed out loud, earning irritated looks at first, but gradually mutual understanding. Seriously couldn't help it. After the 4th time they send the SAME EXACT COP to a grisly (supposedly creepy) murder scene, i just about lost it. After the Mom calls 911 for the 3rd time, and also for the 3rd time hangs up on the 911 operator for no reason, I was rolling. I can't take credit for this as I didn't notice it, but the January "21th" date tag, now that I know it is there, makes it even funnier. If you need a solid laugh, check it out.

An 11 year-old with an iPhone and a vague notion of storyboarding could have done a better job. Tedious, repetitive and far too much screaming and crying. None of the characters were sympathetic...just pathetic. Less than halfway through the film I wanted them ALL to be dead just to be put out of my own misery. Also, terrible audio continuity. Some scenes I had to turn down the volume 75% for fear of ripping my speakers, then other scenes were virtually silent movie. I normally don't write bad reviews. I see a LOT of movies, so while I may have panned a few on IMDb that represents less than a tenth of a percent of the movies I have seen and enjoyed and didn't consider a complete waste of time.

I have nothing against found footage movies, some are fun and tolerable even when lacking in some areas but there are others where they are just too amateurish to enjoy, and The Bell Witch Haunting is one of the latter examples. It is a very cheap-looking movie for starters, sometimes the movie is lit too darkly while the editing at best is sloppy. The effects rushed-looking, poorly blended within the setting and poorly textured and proportioned(almost like constructed as an after-thought, the witch hovering near the table was a prime example) and watching how The Bell Witch Haunting is shot you'd think you're suffering from motion sickness from all the over-utilised and unneeded shakiness. The setting is spooky enough looks-wise but with little atmosphere it feels very bland and too much of a cliché. The found footage itself is clumsily incorporated and looks sloppy rather than interesting, the findings are okay but everything happening around it is so irrelevant the use of it feels like a waste. The sound is mixed in a muddied way and the soundtrack is plodding with nothing memorable. For want of a better word, the script is shambolic with no structure or flow and dialogue that sounds awkward and underwritten. The story has very little to it, it is very tediously paced with scenes like the men that become electrocuted and possessed going on for far too long. Everything feels random with events being strung along together with little correlation to one another and a lot of the time ridiculously executed, and it is very predictable not helped by droning whispering voice-overs that tells us far too much too soon. The tension, horror and shock levels suffer from that and also that they don't look very good at all, plus the ending in many ways is a complete mess, overly-silly and with no build-up. The direction is completely flat and half-hearted, veering on incompetent, and you don't care for a single character, that they're cardboard cut-outs is one problem and that they often act like idiots(especially the police officer) is even more problematic. The acting is not much better, in fact it is too often laughably bad with overwrought crying, mumbling, stock gestures, constant yelling and looking half-asleep, the hysterical mother faring the worst. There is some nudity and some beautiful women but they seem there for the sake of them and are used in a too in-your-face way. All in all, another found footage stinker from The Asylum. 1/10 Bethany Cox