A Southern Haunting

Right, well as I sat down to watch this 2023 horror movie, it was with the release title of "A Southern Haunting", so I figured that I would be in for a ghost movie. However, the title of this movie from writer and directors M. J. Anderson and T. Huff is 40, and that is also what was shown on the screen, during the title sequence of the movie. So the title "A Southern Haunting" was rather misguiding.

The storyline in "40" was somewhat dull and slow paced. It wasn't a particularly interesting storyline, though it was semi-watchable for what it turned out to be. However, I was expecting more of an ordinary haunting movie, instead I was treated to a slow paced tale of former slaves gaining their freedom, but come to acquire some cursed lands. Sure, it sounds interesting enough, but writers and directors M. J. Anderson and T. Huff just never kicked the movie up into any gear.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but given the circumstances of the weak script, then the actors and actresses actually fared well enough.

Visually, then you're not in for anything spectacular. There were a little bit of special effects throughout the course of the 94 minutes that the movie ran for, but nothing noteworthy or memorable.

All in all, the movie is a rather forgettable movie, and not one I would recommend for horror fans to rush out and get to watch.

My rating of "40" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

I REALLY wanted to love this movie! At least LIKE it! The story it was built on SHOULD have worked! It's a new story, a new idea that has actual roots in truth mixed with the mythology of "Southern supernatural" and...by golly... Almost a ghost story that writes itself!

So how'd it end up being this mess?

Whoever wrote it can't seem to keep a cohesive thought together! Or write it down into a script that others can bring to life. The IDEA is terrific. But someone else seriously needs to write it and then someone else needs to execute it into a script then have good actors work it then ..

Because this was a pile of WTH mess.

Waste of time! Only thing saving it was I got some laundry done.

I have no idea what the writer/director was going for in this movie. It's not scary, first of all. Second, it's so slow and disjointed that it's boring and nonsensical. Did most of the movie get cut? Because there was such bizarre cuts between scenes, like one scene you see a boy hunting and then suddenly his dad appears out of nowhere. I'm worried that the director was using a bootleg copy of a film editing app on a really old cell phone.

There's absolutely no explanation or dialogue to describe what is happening for the first half of the film. The "scary" part is a black mist that randomly appears, a guy that goes catatonic for most of the movie, and a woman in a well. Oh wait, two women in a well. This movie was a waste of time, and just confirms that there's no end of money for mediocrity. The actors are all fine, they make the best of really bad material.

Scorsese would weep if he watched this.

Whomever wrote, produced, filmed, created, or even acted in this movie should rethink this. The movie is not a horror, it's slow to watch, and confusing to follow.

I only continued watching it due to the female actress (Older daughter). I would love to be able to get my wasted time back, but I can't.

This was a horrible movie I would hope they wouldn't make another movie like this.

I have nothing else to say about the movie other than I wish I would not have seen it.

I actually thought the movie was made back in the early 2000's. I can't believe this movie was made in 2023. I could sworn they switched out the actors.

Massa's wagon runs over slave child. Bad acting ensues.

Does anyone remember "Roots"? Does anyone remember what a step forward that was?

How bad is this movie? Have you seen the anti-smoking commercials that constantly pervade TV? Such as the one where some lady has had her toes cut off because of smoking? This movie is worse than that.

Have you seen the episode of "Leave It To Beaver" where the Beav climbs up on a billboard with a coffee cup on it, Beaver falls into the coffee cup, and has to have the fire department come in to get him out? This movie is even stupider than that.

Spend your life doing better things than watching this horrible movie.