A
family called the Campbell's move to a big house
that was once a mortuary in Conneticut to be near
the hospital for a boy named Matt (Kyle Gallner)
who is suffering from cancer and when Matt enters
the house he hears something calling his name and
to do evil stuff.
He tries to tell his family to move out as the
house is evil but his family thinks it's his
medication but he sleeps in the basement with his
younger brother Billy (Ty Wood) and experience
strange forces appearing when the light is off.
The youngest in the family named Mary (Sophi
Knight) sees a strange looking woman entering her
room while she is playing with her dolls and the
mother Sara (Virginia Madsen) scolds both Matt
and Billy about scaring her with stories and they
deny that they ever did.
Then a family member named Wendy (Amanda Crew)
visits and is tormented by Matt's obnoxious
behavior and Matt is taken away.
Then the rest of the family is tormented by this
evil even outside of their home and tries to
contact Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas) to help
them out and possibly perform an exorcism so they
can be free from the evil curse.
This film was done in a very
similar style like Unsolved Mysteries
with a narration on what's going on. At first you
wonder if this is a movie at all but it rolls
along very well.
Yes it is a fact based movie and it has similar
lines in other fact based movies like
Amityville Horror and the Exorcism
of Emily Rose. There's good
dysfunctional values like you see in a haunted
house that's possessed like you read about
families experiencing this.
The film alltogether was very well done showing
the real people talking about their experiences
in a dark background which is what a fact based
movie should be and not fabricating anything at
all.
I can see this film winning some awards ifor it's
creativity and not leaving anything out at all.
Blair Witch Project created the
mocumentaries and now this one can create the
re-enactment type movies.
The acting is was terrifically done
which we have a nice performance by lead actress Virginia
Madsen with her nice sympathetic attitude
and good emotions when the haunting occur. She
really came across well by playing a mother in
the film and I was overall impressed by it.
Kyle Gallner was another great character
actor in the film battling cancer and knew how to
act low on energy as well as being possessed with
his evil and aggressive attitudes towards others.
He brought up the intensity incredibly well.
Amanda Crew had a nice outgoing personality
as a family member in the story of the film
making her caring attitude very believeable along
with her sobbing too when she's attacked by the
hauntings and her possessed cousin.
Martin Donovan really came across well as
the strict and obnoxious family man in the film
bringing a terrific stubborness to his part
making you remind others that are very closed
minded.
The directing is well done and
looking neatly documented as we have a good shot
on lead actress Virginia Madsen in the
hospital room watching her son which is played by
Kyle Gallner in which we have a nice
shot on him lying in a gurney looking pale and
sick.
There are good shots on both Madsen and
Michael Donovan looking around the rooms of
the house and then realising a dark looking room
that the place was a mortuary with Madsen acting
fearful about it as the direction does give it a
good impression for a start of a scary movie.
We have a good dialogue between Gallner and
Madsen when he tries to tell her they
need to leave the house as it's evil with good
expressions and emotions when she tries to calm
him down.
A nice shot up on Gallner swinging Wood
on a gurney in the dark room looking like two
siblings having fun.
We have a nice shot on child actress Sophi
Knight playing with her dolls and dollhouse
and then a ghostly figure appears as she looked
good choked up and spooked then running
downstairs pleading to her Mom about a person in
her room and panicking which was well directed. Madsen
does a good job by scolding both Gallner and
Wood about scaring their sister when
they try to convince her they weren't doing
anything.
There's many good scene's with both Gallner and
Wood sleeping in a basement room and
spotting some hauntings with them being creeped
out and disturbed by it.
A good shot looking down on Donovan
taking out the lightbulbs in the room basement to
prevent the kids for keeping the lights on and
later on the lights turning on and off without
the bulbs and Knight standing there
looking lifeless turning on and off the switch
and then running away with the two of them
chasing after her up the stairs.
We have a good quarelling scene between Gallner
and Donovan by what is happening
which looked like a good dysfunctional moment
between the two of them.
There's a good presence by Amanda Crew
playing a family member greeting Gallner
in his room and them having a discussion.
There's a nice tense moment with Gallner
writing aggressive notes in his notebook and
getting obnoxious with everyone.
There's a good shot on Gallner pulling
down the covers on Crew with him
snickering evilly and about to attack her with
her crying and then him being pulled away by Donovan
and Gallner going ballistic as well
as a good shot on Gallner going crazy
while two bit part actors Darren Ross
and Sarah Constable as paramedics are
taking him away.
There's a nice shot on Crew sleeping in
bed with a necklace of her crucifix rising up
above her neck while Madsen is taking a
shower and the shower curtains are grabbing onto
her with her screaming for her life.
The two of them do well by crying together
looking believeably emotional.
We have a nice shot on a vehicle crashing into an
office building with Donovan trying to
take cover.
Next we get a good performance by Elias
Koteas trying to chase away the evil in the
house with shots of stuff falling and breaking
along with shots on people like Madsen being
taken by force and falling back against a wall as
all of this looked very powerful.
During the whole story we spot good shots
overhead of the neighborhood along with some
heavy snow falling and the moon as well as the
forestry area too.
We
hear many good piano tapping sounding very
haunting like as well as the occasional chanting
sounds too which alos fits in well composed by Robert
J. Kral.
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