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.

I don't think I've ever been compelled to review before - which is a shame as some films deserve excellent reviews. This one however does not.

As a woman born and raised near Pendle and whose family hailed from this area I am more than well acquainted with the history.

FirstlyA the accents - I mean REALLY??! Art thou ever been to Lancashire ? Because you wouldn't bloody know from this!

The acting- diabolical. So hammy it could make a sandwich.

The storyline- laughable.

Please for the love of god will American filmmakers (and I hope the guy who made this is American because if not you have no excuse mate!) stop!! Just bloody stop!!

Even if they were mediocre actors a regional dialect would have made this slightly more believable - but for me it was the woman behind the bar in the scene where the American girl go to stays- she sounded like she might be from the Home Counties no where near Lancashire- and historically the American girl/girl from Lancashire in the 1700's would absolutely have had a regional dialect as would the father.

Take the fact they didn't know the area aside, the slow burn they tried to give was just a joke!

My daughter made better movies for her GCSE film.

Deserves a 0 rating at best.

I always have lived In the pendle area and i climb the HILL almost every weak in the summer, it is what got me into mountain climbing that takes up and down these fine wild isles. To my excitement when i found a film set about its past i was all ears. You can only imagine my disappointment when the film was not set in this area and the accents also not from around here. The mountains where too big and wild probably set in the lake district and canada and the forest also far too big. I now have an itching feeling that i must go and film my own pendle movie just to do us northerners something to be excited about.

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.

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.