The Investigation: A Haunting in Sherwood

Poltergeist-type films always get under my skin. I saw the 2023 Sherwood film a while back, but it wasn't as scary as I hoped. However, this prequel creeped me out so much I had to stop watching it late at night. (Although many bumps and scares occurred during the day!) I returned to watch it the next afternoon and am still just as unsettled. The concept of the insurance investigator spying on the house and witnessing everything in real time was excellent. Then, when he got the first knocks at his door, I knew there'd be big trouble for him.

I'm still curious about the origins of the house. It sounds like a wheezy, angry old sod who doesn't want people living there.

Entertaining enough. Nothing spectacular but watchable if you have some time to kill or if you're hopped up on Ritalin and your concentration is on point. No budget, so the cinematography and acting are what they are... not really fair to knock those aspects. Somewhat lazy story and even lazier ending.

Okay, so the pacing was slow, and the ending predictable, however the movie had a solid creepy vibe. It was a great movie to listen to and peek at as I did some housework because it was easy to follow. The acting was decent. There was a beginning, middle and end. Not an award winning movie but definitely high ranking in the category of "enjoyable movie while I do some boring things around the house". Word of caution, could not hold my attention if I were to truly watch it. You have to have something else to do in order to enjoy it!

The feel of this film is very gritty and crawls under your skin like a ff film should. I made a point of the film being independent as it has that genuine homegrown British feel to it and I personally feel only adds to the character of the film. Obviously this is purely on a subjective basis and will not be to everyone's taste but it's definitely worth a watch a shows a great promise of what's to come in the industry from this particular director. Good work I say.

Another decent production from the growing portfolio of Richard Mansfield. As with his previous Found Footage efforts; A Haunting in Sherwood, appears to be another ultra low budget affair, so to expect 'Studio' quality production would be daft. What we get is a solid, genuinely creepy film which is, in parts, a little confusing as we get no explanation as to exactly why Gareth is investigating the house where the events take place. until later when it is loosely dropped in that neighbours have been complaining about noise coming from the house. Had that been explained earlier, the subsequent scenes would have been easier to follow as it seemed as though Gareth was in the house and hacking the guy's security for no reason at all. Nit-picking aside, we are left with a well paced, superbly acted tale, which has it's 'WTF' moments, which don't drag the film into the realms of daftness as can happen all too easily in this genre. Another solid piece from Mansfield Dark which leaves me thinking that fairly soon they will hit 'paydirt' and produce a classic. So far they have been close in several of their films without quite hitting the nail on the head. One hopes they find funding to produce more quality films as low budget filmmakers are the future of the genre.