Hey, this movie premiered on September 9th! That's the day after my birthday. Know what other movie premiered on September 9th? "The Others." Also "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." I know because I was stoked that those movies came out so close to my birthday, so I went to see them in theaters. I wish I'd heard about this movie before now. I'm always excited about my birthday horror movies (as I like to call them). Plus Kate Beckinsale is in this movie, and I really like her, so I'm excited to see her in a horror movie. What fun!
So this movie is about a family who move into an old house, which is of course haunted, because that's what happens in movies like this. Kate Beckinsale plays the mother, and she's an architect who is going to do most of the work restoring the house. Of course, soon after she moves into the house, she starts to have creepy visions. Just once I'd love it if yhe damn husband in one of these movies started seeing the creepy ghosts and crap (though I guess it wouldn't help, because in the movies I've seen where the husband sees the ghostly happenings, the wife doesn't believe him, which defeats the entire purpose...come ON married people, have some faith in each other for once).
There's some good atmosphere in this movie. The house is sufficiently creepy and creaky, and it seems to be hiding lots of secrets. There's a big spiral staircase in the center of the house that reminds me of the one in the movie "Kill Baby, Kill." This movie is a lot like that one in the sense that there's lots of confusing nightmarish imagery that makes you question the sanity of the main character. The more we find out about her past, the more it seems like she could be going off the deep end. When will people learn that moving to creepy houses after tragedy happens in their lives is going to cause something horrifying to occur?
So I'm watching the movie, getting involved with the characters, wanting to punch the husband in the face, you know, normal horror challenge stuff, when I realize the husband is played by Mel Raido, who had a substantial role in an episode of "Midsomer Murders," the shoe I was binge watching before I started the challenge this year. I knew that I recognized him from somewhere! He does well with his role, though of course he doesn't believe his wife when she says something is wrong in their house (and really, she is acting nuts, so I can't exactly blame him for jumping to the conclusion that she's a few cans short of a six pack).
As the movie goes on and more secrets unfold, it gets more and more convoluted and terrifying (and to be honest, I'd be taking my ass to the nearest motel once things started to go from bad to worse, though I'm not sure if it would help her once she's past a certain point, because I'm not even sure if she believes herself). When stories like these are so steeped in tragedy, it's hard because identifying with the characters hurts my heart because of all the pain they're feeling. That's one thing this movie does very well, tugging on my heartstrings and mixing family drama on with the scares. It's a shame that this movie ultimately ends up being so empty, because they really had something here and it seemed like the movie was building toward a conclusion, then it was like the filmmakers ran out of money so they just stopped. That kind of crap really pisses me off, because the movie seemed so promising with so many things going for it, and then...nope. I'll take a movie with a lower budget and no name actors any day as long as it tries hard from beginning to end instead of starting strong and then just falling flat. What a disappointment!
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