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 think the concept might have been good, if I'm deciphering this mess correctly, but it's hard to tell. Disjointed, sloppy art direction, and some talented actors in search of a director. Ed Wood much?

And Rusty? You can do better than this dog.

It's a shame this concept wasn't better executed, because the story concept has real potential.

Pure Southern Gothic is great if it is well executed and the rich storyline of the a family in search of mother set in the reconstruction era and facing a haunted farm is a rich canvas. So why didn't we see a better set and costumes. I understand production during the pandemic was limiting, but surely we could have had moodier lighting and a little dirt and dust? It was like this was shot in a museum.

So it's super obvious two white dudes wrote and directed this, which I don't think should've been allowed. Their "authenticity" and "knowledge" when it comes to racism and slavery feels like it was ripped from a wikihow article or an american history class. Terrible. Any review giving it higher than garbage is lying or is being paid to say so. I see 9/10 and 10/10's and to those people- you either were watching an entirely different movie or are both fortunately blind and deaf. While the actors were great, their efforts were completely drowned out by the insufferable script, try hard conflict, poor filming and overall high school home project vibes. Had this been written by a POC or had a POC even been talked to during the creative process this could've been a phenomenal flick.

Nothing about this movie was thrilling. There were so many things that made no sense. I feel like the writers were stoned 15 year olds who were like let's add all of these things and when someone said "those don't make sense" they all laughed and said "exactly." Waste of time. I expected much more and feel like it could have been done so much better. The story could have had so much more to it. The actors were pretty good though. I will give it that. No idea where the people rating it a 10 we're watching and I wish I could have seen it through their eyes.

Won't watch again and I don't recommend to anyone wanting a thriller or horror movie.

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.