The Haunting of Pendle Hill

You know, it's always interesting to see a movie made by a filmmaker whose ambition outstrips his talent. Such is the case with Richard John Taylor's "The Haunting of Pendle Hill", an atmospheric film based loosely on some real-life witch trials in rural England in 1612. While the cinematography of the rural countryside it lovely, the film itself struggles to build any suspense or interest. Some of this may be due to a low budget, but most of it hinges on the fact that it's bloody difficult to keep an audience engaged with the "slow burn" method when the story and/or actor's performances don't create any momentum or rising tension. And, as the title of this review implies, there are a few glaring period glitches. It's not a technical stinker (most of the film seems very competently made), it just doesn't deliver in terms of action or scares.

Who would have thought that a haunting could put you to sleep?

Talk about a swing and a miss of a horror movie from writer and director Richard John Taylor.

Granted, when I sat down to watch the 2022 horror movie "The Haunting of Pendle Hill", then I had never heard about the movie. And the low rating that the movie has harvested here on IMDb didn't exactly have me all thrilled and excited. Yet, I still opted to watch the movie. Why? Well, because I hadn't already seen it, and I do believe in giving a movie a fair chance.

But "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" never stood a snowballs chance in Hell. The storyline was just so insanely generic and mundane, that anything even resembling enjoyment was just drained right out of the ordeal. So writer Richard John Taylor didn't exactly strike gold here with this movie. And also an unfathomably slow narrative helped to put the final nail in the coffin and secure a low rating from me.

The acting performances in "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" were adequate. Nothing outstanding here. But then again, in all fairness, then the actors and actresses virtually had nothing to work with here in terms of script, storyline, dialogue or interesting characters.

For a horror movie then "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" just didn't cut it.

My rating of "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" lands on a two out of ten stars.

Acting terrible and cheesy a 3 year old could do better IT WASNT EVEN SET IN PENDIL HILL I LIVE 20 MINUTES AWAY FROM IT I HAVE NO CLUE WHERE THEY FILMED BUT IT DEFFO WAS NOT PENDIL.

Just awful. Bad acting, bad script, bad dialogues. Bad everything.

Who thought "Guys, this sounds like a great idea for a movie. Let's do this!

I've watched a lot of "haunting" movies and this one is definitely the worst of them all.

A nice attempt to put together a horror film on a budget. Bad actors and a badly concocted story are reminiscent of "The Asylum" quality.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------