A Lenda de Saint Joseph

I have to admit that I was initially lured into watching the 2023 horror movie "The Haunting at Saint Joseph's" given the somewhat interesting cover/poster that the movie had. Sure, I had never even heard about the movie, prior to sitting down to watch it, so I had no clue as to what I was in for here.

And talk about a swing and a miss of a script and storyline from writer and director Jon Cohen. The storyline and narrative in "The Haunting at Saint Joseph's" utterly failed to capture my interest, and the pacing of the narrative was just insanely bland and mundane. And to make matters even worse and all the more unbearable, then there was nothing interesting happening throughout the slow paced narrative.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. And that is usually something I enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie, as I don't accidentally associate the actors and actresses with previously portrayed characters in other movies. But the actors and actresses in "The Haunting at Saint Joseph's" never stood a snowball's chance in Hell here, because they virtually were given nothing worthwhile to work with in terms of script, characters or dialogue.

As for "The Haunting at Saint Joseph's" being a horror movie, well... That might be stretching it a bit. But then again, what some consider horror, I might just consider thriller. But this 2023 movie from writer and director Jon Cohen certainly was no horror movie to me, but then again I have been watching horror movies ever since I was about 8 years old.

This movie is not really worth the effort, and it is most certainly not a movie that I would recommend you to waste your time, money or effort on. Some of us suffered through this, so you don't have to.

My rating of writer and director Jon Cohen's 2023 movie "The Haunting at Saint Joseph's" lands on a two out of ten stars.

This film tries hard to say something inside if a haunted setting. Unfortunately, the message isn't very subtle, and the messaging is heavy handed. The characters are one dimensional, and the plotting suffers with similar one note points.

I'm confused on the haunted part of the story as this isn't really present other than as a setting element. Otherwise, the plot is just people who aren't willing to be honest with each other. Oh, and one character is Muslim, for whatever that is worth. And that seems to be a point of prejudice.

The plotting has many slow and dull moments. They seemed to just fill time with anything they could find to point the camera. Or have random emoting from the movie actors. Or over the top stereotypical behaviors.

And, don't expect much clarification about what is happening or what happened. They don't offer much except a cliched twist, leaving the story pointless from the supernatural elements that they don't explore. Amazing that mildly deranged hatred is a major point in a movie.

You can skip this one without any worries.

This Aussie flick delivers a gritty, authentic experience on a shoestring budget. Despite limited resources, the film's raw cinematography captures characters emotions. The plot, centered around a group of friends navigating challenges, is engaging. The genuine camaraderie among the cast shines through. The film's charm lies in its simplicity, offering a refreshing departure from high-budget blockbusters. The haunting at Saint Joseph's is a commendable effort, showcasing the resilience of Australian independent cinema. I wasn't really familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and I enjoyed it.

Trying to forget their work issues, the staff of a local hospital takes a trip for a bachelor party at a closed-down hospital turned into a tourist resort that's said to be haunted, but when they realize it's actually haunted by a person sacrificed hundreds of years earlier must try to get away alive.

This was a generally enjoyable and likable effort. One of the finer aspects here is the fine setup at a place that manages to introduce some solid enough storylines for this one. The initial backstory of the innocent victim initially killed at the site and the resulting haunted nature of everything makes for a highly enjoyable setup as it coincides nicely with their trip to the location for the bachelor party shenanigans. This all manages to bring the group together and get to know them a little bit more before everything starts happening with the strong series of visions and hallucinations that are shown here which all provides a fun enough starting point for everything. That allows the film to have a rather fun series of haunting scenes throughout here. The first scenes of the figure appearing around the darkened hallways and corridors of the abandoned hospital at the very beginning start this rather nicely, much like the prank that serves as a starting point to the distrust that runs throughout the rest of the film. The confrontations and violence that arise following this point are quite fun as this brings about a series of enjoyable and brutal interactions as they try to stop those around them from how unnatural they've been acting which puts everything into a great touch with some shocking brutality that all combined gives the film a lot to like. There are some issues with this one that hold it back. Among the biggest drawbacks here is the incredibly dull and generally frustrating middle section where the majority of the film's antics are strewn over interpersonal strife within the group. The idea of being upset over the engagement and all that is perfectly fine but the whole concept of thinking it's scary to have arguments over the belief that a character is lying without proof or engaging in illicit relationships is just not that interesting. Hardly anything that takes place here for the entire middle section of this one as it just plods along meandering through this section with barely any life to it. The other big issue here is the underwhelming and generally troublesome finale where it has some problematic factors involved. The series of twists involved in what's going on here doesn't make any sense as the rationale spewed here to try to provide context for the situation is inherently faulty and really has some logical factors at play. It's all done at the expense of the supernatural antics from the spirit who serves as the launching point for the explanations of everything but that twist ends up removing it as a source of the incidents so it comes off as a complete cheat at the end. These factors are pretty much the big factors holding it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Hoping for a low budget wicked Aussie gem here, but this was definitely not it. Unconvincing muddled characters and interactions make this a chore to get through. The dialogue is boring, and completely void of a story or plot. Overly dramatic scores were used to make up tension, when none is present on screen. After 65 minutes of tedious suffering I called it quits. Nothing was offered up to hold interest, scares, or any entertainment value at all, really. Much better offerings out there if you are scraping the low budget or cheap thrills bin. Skip over this one unless you want to use it as a sleep aid.