The Bell Witch Haunting

This has to be one of the WORST movies I've ever seen in my life. This didn't even seem real in the least. The acting itself was terrible, and I felt like I probably could have put on a better show than what these folks did. This movie was definitely too far fetched with the events that happened for it to even be believable. There were times when I even questioned if I was watching a scary movie because some of the small things they decided to throw in there (I guess trying to be scary) were almost silly. In closing, pick anything BUT this movie because all you'll find here is amazement that this movie even made it out of the studios.

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

I really wish there was a positive note to my first review, not gonna happen.

Unless I was meant to laugh so hard I may or may not have weed my pants.

This has to be a joke, right? I wasn't expecting too much, at least I wasn't let down, much.

I have seen a few movies on a tight budget, but they still were a decent watch.

This was absolute rubbish.

I'm still trying to figure out why I even watched it to the end.

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.

There's some found footage films that are great...then there's a good seventy percent that are down right awful. The Bell Witch Haunting is not only a terrible film but it is quite possibly one of the worst films I've ever seen. The acting is awful, the story makes absolutely no sense and the scares come and go without ever really developing a sense of dread or suspense. There is also a ambient stock sound that portrays the "demon" that sounds so fake and superficial. It's one thing to use a specific sound to implore anticipation to the audience but its a totally different ball game when it sounds cheap and lazy. It makes us feel like we are cheated. The ending never really builds up to much except for a complete gore fest that feels more like something out of a Jason Vorhees film, not a supernatural thriller. Bottom line, this film is cheap, lazy, ludicrous, and so poorly made that it makes The Room look like a modern cinematic masterpiece. Do yourself a favor, do NOT watch this. It is by far one of the worst films I've ever seen.