Rating of
1.5/4
If you aren't a 13-year-old girl don't bother
Josh C - wrote on 03/23/07
Since most of the movie was utterly disappointing, I will start with the only positive aspect, Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. Both of these actors played their part well and if it weren't for such a terrible story and generic scare tactics, they may have been able to save the movie. Alas, like many of the PG-13 horror films of today not even good acting can make up for a shady plot, bad directing and terrible editing. The film is based on the poltergeist story involving a family in rural Tennessee in the early 1800's. The story is filled with the garbled and incoherent dreams of seemingly possessed Betsy Bell, played by Rachel Hurd-Wood. In a movie built around a ghost story it was disappointing to see cheap scare tactics instead of making the movie all around eerie. I am not sure what director Courtney Solomon was thinking when he chose to film the movie with a style similar to a low budget "hack 'em slash 'em" film from the 80's, but clearly there are better ways of scaring an audience. While the filming style could have used some work, the editing and special effects were a disaster. It mostly resembled a bad soap opera. It jumps around between dreams and reality faster than Ricky Williams' in a Marijuana haze. A movie like this doesn't need a whole lot of special effects but the few that it had were terrible and even ruined the scenes. The poltergeist was nothing more than Betsy with a slight hue around her.
The only scary thing about this film was how many 13-year-old girls turned up to the theater to watch this on opening night. As a fan of horror films I understand if you want to judge this for yourself, but listen to my words wisely; don't bother.
