The St. Francisville Experiment

This movie sucked so hard that initially words just escape me. It was despicable, deplorable, atrocious, un-called for, and absolutely without a shadow of a doubt terrible. The acting was so overdone and cheesy. I feel that renting this movie and investing time in it until the end, took a part of my life and soul that I will never be able to get back. Honestly I would have rather watched grass grow in slow motion. Furthermore, I feel that this movie was a blind attempt to recreate the Blair Witch Project which I must say now seems awesome compared to St. Francisville. I advise everyone to stay as far away as possible from this movie to avoid tragic disappointment.

I have liked films by Ted Nicolaou in the past, but this will not rank as one of them.

I give this this movie one star - strictly on the fact that they told the real New Orleans story of Madame LaLaurie.

Watching the Blair Witch rip-off "The St. Francisville Experiment (2000)" and this movie is just so bad it's laughable. One guy walks around saying "I love the ghosts" to stay positive, a girl is a total basket case the entire time, at one point she exclaims, "Omg a dead bird! and the other girl asks, "How dead is it?" All the actors are terrible, and the screenplay is atrocious. I think the only good thing I can say about this movie is, nope I got nothing.

Every thing the characters did in The St Francisville Experiment contradicted everything else they did or said at each moment... they are introduced as serious investigator friends, but it becomes clear in the first scene in the house they don't know each other at all and are complete amateurs, then one says to share all their feelings, so the one girl says a prayer by herself for herself which suddenly everyone is okay with, then they say as long as we stick together we should be able to handle this, so what do they do? They split up to go cleanse the house, all the rooms simultaneously... This movie was like that contradiction poem we heard as little kids, the one that goes... admission is free pay at the door, grab a chair and sit on the floor... this was the absolute contradiction haunting movie.

The climax itself had such potential, but just left me feeling upset.

Spoilers Ahead ---------------------------------------------- So many clichés and contradictions in this film, from the totally healthy cat that jumps out of an Armoire, a falling chandelier, non-cohesive emotions from scene to scene, saying lets stick together because that's how we'll be successful here, then splitting up, saying lets share all of our emotions so one girl prays by herself? The ending has one room shaking, an arm reaches for one girl, that was dull, another gets dragged, they find the guy who was in the attic, chained in the basement hidden medical room, and Ryan tied to a table? The only ghost you see is a bit of mist that quickly dissipates....

Episodes of Ghost Adventures are scarier than this movie.

I cannot recommend this movie to anyone.

1/10

Ted Nicolaou made a lot of great horror and fantasy films. I am looking for all his films to see. I could not find this one for 3 year, until I unexpectedly found it in youtube. To tell the truth I wanted to see more ghosts and less talks here. It looks like in 1999-2001 Ted had a crisis , maybe in money. His features of this time look more like real low budget thrash z garbage movies. But I do not claim him to be a bad director this time . Everything happens. The ending has some nice creepy details and suspense but the whole film was long dull dialogues .

only for real Ted's fans.

www.myspace.com/neizvestnostlab

I watched this movie last night, it was horrible. They took what could have been a scary situation, and made it stupid. The women were much more annoying than the guys, because they were all stereotypes of people. Madison kept talking about the "white light" that surrounded them, but no one ever asked what she was talking about, they just let her go with it. And after a few "purifications" that obviously didn't work they decide on the classic cliche of splitting up, and trying them seperated from each other?!?!?. The scares were all jumpy scares "oh no something jumped out in front of me", nothing with actual fright value. There are also scenes where doors open for people....and they go in them! And spaces open in the floor, or they find a hole and they STICK THEIR HANDS IN THEM WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO SEE!! Yeah right... Also the fact that people lived in the house, and yet these people didn't get rid of the "bloody medical equipment" in the basement, or seal up a hole in the wall, make it seem more staged. And finally they are standing in the house for five minutes before they try turning on a light, when I, a normal person, go into a house that's the first thing I do.

I think the people behind this "true" documentary film saw both The Blair Witch Project and the Fox Family Channel Special of "The Scariest Places on Earth" in the same day. Sorry guys, but this was not as entertaining as 3 people being stalked in the woods, or a family locked inside of an English castle for the night. My thoughts:

• Madison is more annoying than Heather ever was.

• Somebody just needed to tell Ryan to shut up.

• If Paul stood on the stairs one second longer contemplating aboug going back into the attic...I would've thrown a chair at him.

• You should've rehearsed the "spontaneity" of the ending more

• The house looked as if the family living there had gone out to grab take-out and would be back any second.

On the upside though, Tim is a real cutie.

Next time out, leave the 3 students alone, and let Linda Blair handle the "family locked inside a haunted house for the night" concept, and come up with an idea that is actually yours.

My grade: D-