A Haunting at Preston Castle (2012)
Poor old Liz (Mackenzie Firgens) has been dumped. It's getting towards the end of her college break and she is sat sulking turning down an offer to go out with her mother, because she is feeling THAT miserable. Her best friend Ashley (Heather Tocquigny) thinks she knows just the thing to cheer her buddy up. Ashley arranges a hook-up with Liz's high school ex-boyfriend Danny (Jake White) and the threesome head off to spooky Preston Castle with a view to rekindling Liz and Danny's romance.
Danny appears to know a lot about Preston Castle's hideous history recounting grisly tales to the girls. Preston Castle is an abandoned boy's correctional institute hardly the place I'd pick to reignite an old romance. Ashley leaves the two prospective love-birds alone as she listens to their shenanigans from the above room. However it is not long before Ashley goes missing with the other two having no idea where to find here. Doors close of their own account, shadows appear out of nowhere and being bitten by things unseen, all of which is right up my street!
I'm a sucker for a good ghostly yarn, in fact I'm a sucker for a poor one too, and such is my love for the haunted house sub-genre, so please bare that in mind when reading my critique of A Haunting at Preston Castle. The film is inspired by true events that happened at the Californian location and the location has featured on TV's Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. Please don't think that there really was a Liz, Ashley and Danny that visited Preston Castle recently, you're taking the 'inspired/based on' angle too literally if you do, but I just know some of you will.
There are gripes - why do Liz's friends seem surprised by her insistence on filming everything? It's how it is now, everyone films or photos everything. It's the culture so this questioning by Liz's friends felt a little irrelevant. Also in spite of the evidence right there in front of her Liz continues to believe there are no such things as ghosts. It becomes rather infuriating. Far too much time is spent having Liz and Danny searching for the missing Ashley. This section could have been tighter.
It's not all bad. There are pluses and healthy ones too. The characters are well defined, if a little irritating they feel more feel than the usual ciphers present in genre output. Co-writer/director Martin Rosenberg's film offers nothing wholly new overall but does twist a little from the norm - former lovers fall out again rather than reconcile in the face of adversity, they have a working phone so none of that 'oh no, we've got no signal' - and it's these little touches that lift it above average.
If you prefer body count over mood and atmosphere you'll be left wanting. I found A Haunting at Preston Castle refreshing that it didn't adhere to that and relied on mood instead. I loathe flicks that feel the need to have something startling happen every ten minutes or so just for the sake of it. That's not good horror that's scary bits in search of a narrative. Here we have a narrative and it's pretty good too and although it runs out of steam towards the end for my money it makes for a reasonable night's entertainment.
Check out more of my reviews at www.mybloodyreviews.com
Poor old Liz (Mackenzie Firgens) has been dumped. It's getting towards the end of her college break and she is sat sulking turning down an offer to go out with her mother, because she is feeling THAT miserable. Her best friend Ashley (Heather Tocquigny) thinks she knows just the thing to cheer her buddy up. Ashley arranges a hook-up with Liz's high school ex-boyfriend Danny (Jake White) and the threesome head off to spooky Preston Castle with a view to rekindling Liz and Danny's romance.
Danny appears to know a lot about Preston Castle's hideous history recounting grisly tales to the girls. Preston Castle is an abandoned boy's correctional institute hardly the place I'd pick to reignite an old romance. Ashley leaves the two prospective love-birds alone as she listens to their shenanigans from the above room. However it is not long before Ashley goes missing with the other two having no idea where to find here. Doors close of their own account, shadows appear out of nowhere and being bitten by things unseen, all of which is right up my street!
I'm a sucker for a good ghostly yarn, in fact I'm a sucker for a poor one too, and such is my love for the haunted house sub-genre, so please bare that in mind when reading my critique of A Haunting at Preston Castle. The film is inspired by true events that happened at the Californian location and the location has featured on TV's Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. Please don't think that there really was a Liz, Ashley and Danny that visited Preston Castle recently, you're taking the 'inspired/based on' angle too literally if you do, but I just know some of you will.
There are gripes - why do Liz's friends seem surprised by her insistence on filming everything? It's how it is now, everyone films or photos everything. It's the culture so this questioning by Liz's friends felt a little irrelevant. Also in spite of the evidence right there in front of her Liz continues to believe there are no such things as ghosts. It becomes rather infuriating. Far too much time is spent having Liz and Danny searching for the missing Ashley. This section could have been tighter.
It's not all bad. There are pluses and healthy ones too. The characters are well defined, if a little irritating they feel more feel than the usual ciphers present in genre output. Co-writer/director Martin Rosenberg's film offers nothing wholly new overall but does twist a little from the norm - former lovers fall out again rather than reconcile in the face of adversity, they have a working phone so none of that 'oh no, we've got no signal' - and it's these little touches that lift it above average.
If you prefer body count over mood and atmosphere you'll be left wanting. I found A Haunting at Preston Castle refreshing that it didn't adhere to that and relied on mood instead. I loathe flicks that feel the need to have something startling happen every ten minutes or so just for the sake of it. That's not good horror that's scary bits in search of a narrative. Here we have a narrative and it's pretty good too and although it runs out of steam towards the end for my money it makes for a reasonable night's entertainment.
Check out more of my reviews at www.mybloodyreviews.com