This is one of those movies that uses the name of a more well-known star to get more attention from fans. This time it's Heather Langenkamp, who got her start in the 80s horror classic "A Nightmare on Elm Street." At least she has a bigger part in this movie and not just a little bit part. She plays the mother of a teen daughter who unexpectedly comes to stay with her mom and her mom's new family in their new house. The new house is supposedly haunted, and soon creepy things start happening. Soon Carrie, the teenage daughter must protect her stepsister Tia from the evil in the house.
It's kind of cool seeing Heather Langenkamp playing the mom of a teenage daughter here when she got he start playing the teenage daughter in movies like this. It's also cool seeing queer characters having roles as just normal, everyday folks (Carrie's mom's new spouse is her WIFE). It's got some good character development and it's clearly well made, with high quality sets and music. It's not just thrown together like some of the movies I watch during this challenge (not naming any names...*glares in Bethany's direction*)
The relationship between the stepsisters is fraught with tension on its own even before adding ghosts into the mix, which I enjoy. It's nice to see well developed characters who weren't just thrown together in ten seconds to fill the movie. The ghostly action isn't anything new, but it's pretty well done, so that works for me. The younger stepsister Tia is kind of a brat, but I guess I can see where it comes from (hello, majorly awkward situation and haunted ass house). I do wish the movie hadn't beat around the bush so much. You only have an hour and a half or so, movie, get on with things.
Unfortunately, once things actually do start happening, they were all ripped off from other, better movies. That's kind of annoying too, because these filmmakers obviously do have talent, so they could have come up with something more original if they'd tried hard enough. Plus while some of the scares are kind of cool, a lot of them involve some really silly looking CGI that makes this movie look like a mix of animation and film, like"Who Framed Roger Rabbit." And then the ending tries to be a big twist, but again, it was accomplished by ripping off other movies, and it winds up being silly and insulting our intelligence. It's a shame, because I really think this movie could have been better, but it just falls flat. Maybe watch this one with kids who don't know any better and they might like it.
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