I got this film as a double feature pack...the other film was called "The Evil" and like this one was a bit of a haunted house film. That one was a better film than this one, this is mainly due to the fact that this film did not really seem to know what kind of film it was trying to be. At times it seems to be playing out like an after school special on bullying. There are points it seems like a comedy and finally at the end of the piece the horror elements finally come into play. Sure there are a few things here and there before that, to suggest that something supernatural is going on, but all the really good stuff is confined to like a ten minute stretch at the end of the film. "The Evil" took some time to get started too, but nothing like this one. So it kind of disappointed, though I should have known it would not be anything great when Todd Bridges of Different Strokes fame is the only actor of note I recognize!
The story has a number of clichés one associates with a haunted house film. A family moves into a new home after some turmoil in their lives and said new house has some strange secrets. The new addition they add though is a street gang that constantly harasses the brother and sister of the family. Though they are a very odd brother sister pair as they are kind of Angelina Jolie and her brother creepy. Well, dad's solution is to threaten them with a shotgun which at one point keeps said gang at bay for a couple of months. The son's strategy while mother and father are gone is to poke and antagonize said gang to the point of angering them into a murderous frenzy. At one point you think the movie is finally getting its act together, but this is just the son being idiotic. Finally, near the end, there is some stuff going down at the haunted house!
So the film has some things going for it. I was kept wondering what the heck was going to happen. I kept wondering when something was going to happen and there were a couple of nice kills near the tail end of the film. Though this is the second film I have viewed that implies that if a woman is having sex, she will not notice that she is being electrocuted! The problem with the film to me, is the tone. It just needed to go all in and be a horror. It just does not have a good atmosphere and to many times I forgot I was watching a rated R horror and then someone would drop the F bomb and I am like, "Yeah, that's right, this is R."
So in the end, the film takes to long to get going, but for that brief ten minute span it does deliver some of the goods. Not as good though as the film that it was paired with, though that one had kind of the opposite problem in that it kind of ended weakly, while this one took forever and ended on a strong note. Well, strong is probably to positive a word, it ended a least in a horror movie fashion. Which again, is the film's weakest point, the overall tone which seems to do to many different things.
The story has a number of clichés one associates with a haunted house film. A family moves into a new home after some turmoil in their lives and said new house has some strange secrets. The new addition they add though is a street gang that constantly harasses the brother and sister of the family. Though they are a very odd brother sister pair as they are kind of Angelina Jolie and her brother creepy. Well, dad's solution is to threaten them with a shotgun which at one point keeps said gang at bay for a couple of months. The son's strategy while mother and father are gone is to poke and antagonize said gang to the point of angering them into a murderous frenzy. At one point you think the movie is finally getting its act together, but this is just the son being idiotic. Finally, near the end, there is some stuff going down at the haunted house!
So the film has some things going for it. I was kept wondering what the heck was going to happen. I kept wondering when something was going to happen and there were a couple of nice kills near the tail end of the film. Though this is the second film I have viewed that implies that if a woman is having sex, she will not notice that she is being electrocuted! The problem with the film to me, is the tone. It just needed to go all in and be a horror. It just does not have a good atmosphere and to many times I forgot I was watching a rated R horror and then someone would drop the F bomb and I am like, "Yeah, that's right, this is R."
So in the end, the film takes to long to get going, but for that brief ten minute span it does deliver some of the goods. Not as good though as the film that it was paired with, though that one had kind of the opposite problem in that it kind of ended weakly, while this one took forever and ended on a strong note. Well, strong is probably to positive a word, it ended a least in a horror movie fashion. Which again, is the film's weakest point, the overall tone which seems to do to many different things.