Ravenswood

The important thing that one must be able to do to actually enjoy movies such as this is suspension of disbelief. Without that, good luck being able to enjoy any movie I can think of. It is a ghost story in an abandoned mental hospital (always creepy) If you can just take that in its behalf and run with it you will enjoy it. If you can't do that.. how do you enjoy anything. Persnickety people suck.

After reading the description on Redbox, this film seemed to be right up my alley for a cheesy, asylum horror flick. I was really looking forward to watching this movie, but I should have known by the opening scene that this film was going to be a jumpy mess that made no sense.

After the opening scene, it introduces the main characters and all of them have the personality of a wet paper bag. Actually, that's unfair. A wet paper bag is still useful after it dries. The only character I found myself liking was Zach, played by Jock Campbell. He seemed to be the only person to bring any type of life to the character he was given. The acting is stiff at best for everyone else, though it does occasionally pick up here and there.

Now for the story: Wait. What story? No spoilers, but the main female, Sofia (Madeline Marie Dona) kept going on about this whole "wait for sex," "six months," "you know why," thing. But that's just it. It NEVER explains the time frame. It gives some backstory to her why she doesn't want it, but what was with the whole "six months" thing? Like...I kept waiting for that to come into play and it never did. And all of her friends keep saying how she's so "strong" and all this nonsense, but we never see it. You can't just keep saying what a character is. You have to show it.

That's the point of film. SHOW, don't TELL.

At no point throughout the movie is she ever shown doing anything noteworthy. She never tries fighting off the spirit, she never stands up for herself, she never does anything. Honestly, I found her and the boyfriend character to be the least interesting in the entire film and she was a main focus. If you're the main focus, you have to be interesting - entertaining. Just...something.

Most of these characters could be replaced with balloons with faces painted on them and you'd get the same amount of energy.

Look, I love cheesy horror flicks. Those dealing with mental institutions and possessions are usually my go-to movies for some fun and entertainment. This should have been a perfect movie for that and it wasn't. It honestly annoys me that I wasted the $1.69 to rent this thing.

The ending theme was pretty good, though.

There's not a lot of story and an awful lot of awful acting in this one. Nothing really breaks out as great in this one. You might want to save yourself the time.

Two young couples turn up at a supposedly haunted house for the weekend where they are met by a third. That sentence may contain a paucity of detail but, regardless of how much it is elaborated on, you know what comes next.

The house concerned is actually an abandoned hospital in Australia where a notorious doctor used to practise shock therapy. The third couple are the custodians, and for a fee they will show you around the premises where you can experience the feel like no other haunted house in Australia complete with cold spots nurtured by dry ice.

Yes, to the surprise of the custodians and the disbelief of the paying customers, a real spirit is unleashed, and yes, it does start killing them, and yes, this is not the sort of situation in which any rational person wants to find himself. The ghosts are rational too, one of them, because in the penultimate scene, having possessed the body of one of the people she/it hasn't killed, she explains at length to the other survivor how wrong he is about ghosts. Does this film have any good points? Well, at the moment you can watch it free on YouTube, but you may still want your money back. The reasons "Ravenswood" doesn't score zero points are because one is mandatory and because all concerned are clearly rank amateurs, and should not be judged by the standards of professional actors, scriptwriters or producers. In short, pity.

Plot

When 4 American tourists - Sofia, Carl, Belle and Michael - go on a ghost tour, they get much more than they bargained for, when the ghosts of an evil Doctor and his last patient victim trap them in the old abandoned psychiatric ward.

Cast

Made by Jon Cohen who brought us the even worse 7th Hunt (2009) and starring an unknown cast who range from awful to tolerable. Madeline Marie Dona was the only standout performer here.

Verdict

Now first of all let me say this is not a found footage movie, this surprised me somewhat as they usually are. The plot, you've seen it COUNTLESS times before. A group of 20 somethings go to an asylum and fall foul of the spirits within.

First of all let me be clear that this is on a shoe string budget, if you're expect anything even remotely a "Special" effect or impressive kill you'll be sorely disappointed. Instead it tries to play it in a more subtle fashion however after some very weird hokey montages at the beginning you swiftly realize this film doesn't have much to deliver.

The finale isn't awful however by that point you're bored, burned out and simply do not care in the slightest.

Ravenswood isn't the worst I've seen lately but considering just how much I watch that's not saying much. This Australian film is one exclusively for the indie ghost movie diehards.

Rants

Why do they always make the sceptic an ahole? He was essentially a bad guy here because he attitude was that dire and that always tends to be the case. I'm a sceptic of such things, or as I like to call myself an adult with a fully functioning brain but I wouldn't be rude to the guide of a ghost tour! I simply wouldn't go in the first place on account of having the foresight to know with overwhelming confidence that no supernatural entities would be joining us.

The Good

Madeline Marie Dona Passable finale You can tell what they were trying to do

The Bad

Rather boring Totally recycled Some underwhelming cast/characters Those montage scenes!