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.
The film looked neatly documented as we have a good shot on Sara Campbell in the hospital room watching her son Matt Campbell in which we have a nice shot on him lying in a gurney looking pale and sick.
There are good shots on both Sara and Peter looking around the rooms of the house and then realising a dark looking room that the place was a mortuary with Sara acting fearful about it in all of this does give it a good impression for a start of a scary movie.
We have a good conversation between Matt and Sara when he tries to tell her they need to leave the house as it's evil.
A nice shot up on Matt swinging Billy on a gurney in the dark room looking like two siblings having fun.
We have a nice shot on Mary playing with her dolls and dollhouse and then a ghostly figure appears.
There's many good scene's with both Matt and Billy by sleeping in a basement room and spotting some hauntings with them being creeped out and disturbed by it.
A good shot looking down on Peter 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 Mary 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 Matt and Peter by what is happening which looked like a good dysfunctional moment between the two of them.
There's a good presence by Wendy playing a family member greeting Matt in his room and them having a discussion.
A good shot on Matt pulling down the covers on Wendy with him snickering evilly and about to attack her with her crying and then him being pulled away by Peter and Matt going ballistic as well as a good shot on him going crazy while two paramedics are taking him away.
There's a nice shot on Wendy sleeping in bed with a necklace of her crucifix rising up above her neck while Sara 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 Peter trying to take cover.
Next we get a good moment by Reverend Popescu on trying to chase away the evil in the house with shots of stuff falling and breaking along with shots on people like Sara 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.
Bottom line is that 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 found footage flicks 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 (Sara Campbell) 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. She offers good expressions and emotions when she tries to calm someone down.
Kyle Gallner (Matt Campbell) 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. A nice tense moment with him writing aggressive notes in his notebook and getting obnoxious with everyone.
Amanda Crew (Wendy) 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 (Peter Campbell) 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. He does a good job by scolding his onscreen kids about scaring their sister
Sophi Knight (Mary Campbell) does well as a typical child and she looked good choked up and spooked when she encounters a haunting and then running downstairs pleading to her Mom about a person in her room and panicking which was well performed.
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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