User reviews

After watching the trailer for this film, I must say I had really high hopes. As a devout Horror fan with a declared preference towards ghost stories and hauntings, I had looked forward to seeing another usual film of the genre, mediocre yet frightening and fun to watch.

While Jessabelle is light-years away from competing with the sub- genres best like The Grudge or Dead Silence, it completes the task it unofficially took upon itself, as it obviously had no intentions of being profound or in any way great. Sarah Snook, while definitely not painful to look at to say the least, is far more than your usual Horror Eye-Candy made famous in classic Slashers. Trust me, this professional knows a hell of a lot more than screaming convincingly and looking fine in a bathing suite. This was my first encounter with her, and I must say she just might be the best thing about Jessabelle. Apparently she's been making quite a name for herself since 2012, and I can definitely see why. Even though her character is stuck in a wheel-chair, the empathy towards its desperation and helplessness is greatly created by Snook's acting skills.

As for the story, it suffers from one of the known banes of Horror - a mediocre plot twist leading to an anticlimactic ending, after a finely made build-up. At least there is a plot twist, true, as Horror films are highly upgraded by these in my opinion, but the one in Jessabelle simply feels unfulfilled. I find it difficult putting my finger on what should have been better about it, I just know it didn't create the sensation we expect from such twists. I believe that was the main reason for the ending being slightly wanting.

All in all, I found Jessabelle to be quite average, meaning anyone who doesn't expect to have their mind blown and being swept off their feet by a masterpiece could enjoy it quite a bit, as I did. Snook's acting and the sufficiently smart plot make it even slightly above average. As always, I would recommend that you ignore my humble opinion, watch it and judge for yourselves. If you ask me - as far as this one is concerned, it's definitely worth it.

I first saw the trailer for this flick in April of last year, at a showing for The Quiet Ones (bad movie, by the way; do not recommend). Being quite the fan of the southern Gothic genre, I wasn't exactly impressed by the trailer but wanted to see it regardless. For some reason or other, Jessabelle never made it to my local theaters - thus, I had to wait for the inevitable RedBox release to follow in January.

And what do you know, I finally got to watch it.

Jessabelle is not a perfect movie. It does have its flaws. It does have its clichés. But it is an honest attempt at making a horror flick and it does work. The atmosphere lends a hand, with spooky southern mansions and dark bayous. And as it so often does in stories like these, voodoo eventually takes center stage.

After recent horror releases like the dismal Oujia (a movie I personally despise), Jessabelle is a welcome change of pace. It is a slow-burner that brings to mind films such as The Skeleton Key (albeit 'Key being a superior effort).

The cinematography is quite good and the acting is effective. Sarah Snook is certainly leading lady material, and you can see her potential here front-and-center. Providing a sympathetic lead can make or break a film like this and Snook does not disappoint. A side note is that she is totally gorgeous and looks just the part for a sweet southern belle.

Final verdict: Jessabelle is nothing groundbreaking but one of the better horror flicks in recent years. Sarah Snook is one to keep an eye on. Worth a rental, but if you want to buy I'd say wait for it to hit the bargain bins.

When I first saw the trailer for this film, I thought to myself; "Wow, now that seems like it could be a tense film, she's stuck in a wheel chair the whole time". I stand by that comment; any horror film with the main character being terrorized or haunted and they are stuck, immobile, will lead to greater stakes. That individual can't run away, they can't really hide, they're stuck. I was game to see this flick.

Jessabelle tells the tale of a young beautiful woman who has her dreams cut short by an accident, which leaves her unable to walk. Confined to a wheel chair, she calls her absentee father to come and pick her up. She moves in with him and finds these old VHS tapes around the house with messages from her mother, whose dead, about Jessabelle's fate. You guessed it, her fate isn't looking to good. Her mother see's death, torture and ghosts in poor Jessabelle's future and her future lurks behind every corner.

Okay, so now we have a main character, physically confined to her chair. The threat isn't really tangible, it's a ghost, so that can come out of nowhere. You're not safe in any room, any corner, or under any sheets. Great, this is good news, the tension will come....the tension will come....I'm sure the tension will eventually come....the tension never came.

Jessabelle disappoints me so much in that area. Not once did I ever really fear for her character. Sure things get a little creepy, but those scare tactics are clichéd and tired out. Even the added bonus of our disabled character, couldn't save the film from that. This film only works, barely, due to the performance from Sarah Snook. Snook was nominated in last years Mofo Film Awards for her role in Predestination. She failed to win, but did indeed turn some heads. She does so again, for me at least, with her honest performance here. She's beautiful, but that doesn't define her character, as so many horror movie characters go that route. Here, Snook gives Jessabelle some depth and some empathy, something a lot of horror flicks lack. So Jessabelle earns some points there.

The final reveals fail to live up to the moderate build up. So the end result is a poor result all around. The film lacks a lot of much needed scares and more importantly, tension and fear for the well being of our main character here. If Jessabelle looks like an interesting film to you, don't be fooled, it's not.

I found out about this movie through IMDb and decided to give it a spin. It had a lot more than I was initially expecting. It has got a couple of clichés that we have seen before, but besides that the movie definitely creeped me out. The house and it's setting give of a chilly vibe and works as a set. The movie creates a creepy atmosphere and doesn't rely on jump scares. The lead gives of a decent to good performance and is convincing in her role. Jessabelle is not really predictable, but when the ending explains how everything fits together there is a part of you that did know deep inside this was how it was gonna turn out. It doesn't disappoint in the end and it's surely is a movie that's worth the watch. Be sure to watch it alone in the dark so the atmosphere can creep you out at it's fullest.

Jessabelle is a movie that, unfortunately, relies too much on it's jump/scare moments & atmosphere to entertain rather than the plot or story. Don't get me wrong...the plot of the movie isn't that bad and the story is filmed out decently enough. It's just that it has a wee bit of a tendency to go a bit slow in places and at 90 minutes (which is average for a film these days) it could have been beefed out a bit better I think to make it not feel AS slow.

Another aspect of the story is that, while it's not overly complicated or confusing, you do need to pay attention to what is happening because if you don't then the ending will make no sense whatsoever. In saying that however, even when paying attention, one part of the story still didn't make sense, but I won't say anything for very obvious reasons.

Some of the scare scenes in the movie were actually quite good (especially considering that this film is only a PG-13) even if they were the good old fashioned jump/scare's. Sometimes the old tried and tested methods are the best and they were done well for this film. The atmosphere generated through the film is very decent as well, especially when it is working alongside the more scarier parts of the story. I know it's a given that atmosphere usually works well with creepy moments, but here it is nicely done throughout the movie.

The cast do a pretty solid job too and the film is well acted. I mean there are no stand out performances that are Oscar worthy (no offense to the cast), but they all do a fine job with the script that they are working with.

Given all of that, it does go a bit slow in places like I say, and I think that's really the only thing stopping me from giving it a slightly higher rating than what I have.

Overall, Jessabelle is a decent, well acted out supernatural horror with some nice creepy moments that is just a bit slow. It's nowhere near to being the best out there but at the same time I've seen much worse.

"It says you're not alone. There's a presence in the house with you. She wants you out of the house." Jessie (Snook) has everything going for her. She is the happiest she has ever been and moving in with her boyfriend whom she loves. In an instant her life is changed. Now alone and paralyzed from the waist down she has no choice but to move in with her father whom she hasn't seen in years. When she finds and plays tapes that her dead mother left for her strange and horrifying things start to happen. I have to open by saying that I am not a big horror movie fan. Mainly due to the fact that recently the horror genre has been Saw-like or found footage type. The ones that scare me are the more psychological movies that mess with your head rather than show you how many ways people can be chopped up. This falls into that category. The movie doesn't need to rely on jump scares to get you. The fact that this one in grounded in reality with the random scare thrown in really makes this work. Overall, if you like movies like The Conjuring or Insidious then you will like this as well. This is one of the few movies that creeped me out in the last year. I liked it. I give it a B+.

It's tough to judge or rate this. Because the essence was much better than what I was expecting. Even if you can see things coming (no pun intended), especially if you read reviews who give away certain things or you just have seen enough horror movies to know some things, you'll still be entertained by this.

And I did like where it went at the end (literally and metaphorically speaking). You could call it a nice twist, though many things could have been prevented if someone would have spoken out. The alternate or rather extended ending does not do anything more than the original did. Ending on the note the movie does right now is the best way to go out.

Jessabelle "Jessie" Laurent (Sarah Snook) is pregnant and accepts to move to the house of her boyfriend to raise a family of their own. However they have a car accident where her boyfriend and her baby die. Jessie is seriously wounded and trapped to a wheelchair, and the direction of the hospital asks her to contact her estranged father to help her. Leon Laurent (David Andrews) brings his daughter to his house in Louisiana and lodges her in her mother's room. Jessie snoops around the room and finds a videotape where her mother Kate Laurent (Joelle Carter) is pregnant and reads tarot cards to her. She tells that Jessie would never left Louisiana; she is attracted by water; and another woman wants her out of the house. However Leon arrives and destroys the tape. On the next morning, Jessie watches another videotape when her father is out of the house, and her mother talks about the man that had taught her to read cards, Moses (Vaughn Wilson}. Jessie is haunted by the ghost of a woman and her father discovers the two other videotapes she has hidden. When he tries to destroy them, something happens to him and he is burnt to death trapped in a shed. During the funeral, Jessie meets her high-school friend Preston Sanders (Mark Webber), who is unhappily married. Preston decides to help Jessie after watching the videotapes. Who might be haunting Jessie?

"Jessabelle" is a creepy and melancholic ghost story, with an original story of haunted house and a well-written screenplay. The plot is developed in a slow pace and the conclusion is totally unexpected. The gorgeous Sarah Snook has a great performance and the supporting cast is also excellent. The IMDb User Rating is totally underrated. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Jessabelle: O Passado Nunca Morre" ("Jessabelle: The Past Never Dies")

Note: On 05 august 2016, I saw this film again.

Returning to her childhood home in Louisiana to recuperate from a horrific car accident (which left her unborn child and fiancé dead) Jessabelle(Sarah Snook)comes face to face with a long-tormented spirit that has been seeking her return—and has no intention of letting her escape.The action of "Jessabelle" takes place in backwoods bayou of Louisiana.The film was directed by Kevin Greutert of "Saw VI" and "Saw 3D" fame.The storyline is quite interesting and captivating and the voodoo imagery is quite spooky.Unfortunately long black haired female spirits in the vein of "Ringu" are too routine to be seriously scary.I must say that I quite enjoyed final twist,though.6 bayou ghosts out of 10.

Returning to her childhood home to recuperate from a horrific car accident, Jessabelle after finding some VHS tapes made by her deceased mother comes face to face with a mysterious spirit seeking vengeance.

Director Kevin Greutert offers an interesting deep south Louisiana chiller, in the vein of Angel Heart and the Skeleton Key to name a few. The slow burning mystery's special effects are excellently executed and there are plenty of jump scares. Notable are Mark Webber and Sarah Snook as Jessabelle. Chris Ellis gives a strong cameo as Sheriff Pruitt and David Andrews (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) gives a solid performance as Jessabelle's Dad Leon.

Even with some surprise deaths those familiar with the genre will have guessed writer Ben Garant's twist by the third act. But the novel idea of a mother making video tapes for her unborn child Jessabelle, then Jessabelle now a grown up watching them with her mother (who has since passed away) giving her daughter information via the tapes is a creepy and emotional idea.

With an abrupt tagged on closing the meat of Jessabelle has been seen before and it loses its originality and scare factor by the ends reveal. That said, Greutert's film is great looking with an eerie atmosphere that is lacking in so many horrors of late.

Jessabelle has so much potential for horror. Firstly, it follows the story of a woman in a wheelchair after an accident to better convey the feeling of helplessness. It's also set in rural bayou and uses old VHS "farewell message", the premise is certainly sound. However, it falters just as it needs to deliver the terror and ends up using unintelligent loud noise.

There's relentless amount of blaring sound effect as if the volume spikes when something is supposed to happen. It also shamelessly blasts footsteps, screeching noise, some gibberish soundtracks and most annoyingly; crippling screams. These are not the level of intensity for fright, it's irritatingly bad like stuck in traffic jam with horn honker. The movie wants the constant scream to infect the audience by producing high amount of them, I'm not sure if the characters are vehemently screaming to each other or to audience, horror just doesn't work that way.

First half is considerably decent, mostly when the movie starts to piece the plot together. Its village and confinement of a wounded girl do create some atmosphere, although as it progresses the movie just keeps falling with flawed logic and reused pattern. It's really unclear if the entity can possess, just haunt, Final Destination-esque or omnipotent entirely, much of it are described with lazy voodoo or tarot narrative. The movie attempts to produce some sort of sense of insecurity by going with this theme back and forth, but without any direction, or logic for that matter, the plot becomes more baffling.

Jessabelle herself (Sarah Snook) acts contradictorily. She might be giggly at one point, scared brainless later and then inexplicably confrontational. I can't believe this is the same girl in Predestination. Other characters aren't likable as well. They are restricted by odd script and implausible development. Their reaction or motives are sketchy at best. It's hard to relate with them with such unrealistic behavior.

It gets worst towards the end. With more screaming, witless belligerent scenes Jessabelle culminates into a tired ending.

I will say that Jessabelle tried to scare but was unsuccessful.. Other than a few jumps from sudden sounds and camera switches.. there is nothing that the movie really has to offer. The plot is interesting.. there is also a whole explanation about everything towards the end tying up loose ends.. The climax is a bit laughable and has been made just for the sake of it.. Supposed "ghost" that needed help turning on you?? Yeah anyway, the acting by the lead is decent. Obviously, in a horror flick there are no real opportunities for sublime acting but she was convincing. Nobody else has a significant part to play in the plot. I wouldn't call her eye candy but out tastes may differ. The cinematography is decent and the BGM fails to thrill.. overall, watchable..

I enjoyed Jessabelle. If you are partial to a sweaty, swampy, bayou ghost story then it's likely that you will enjoy yourself with the movie as well.

The story benefits from unraveling slowly and leaving some mystery about what's really happening until the very end. After a terrible accident leaves her reliant on a wheelchair, a woman is forced to move back to her family home in the Louisiana swamp with her estranged father. She finds that there are more than just emotional ghosts waiting for her in that lonely house. As far as modern horror goes, this isn't an overly violent or gory film. There are a few jump scares sprinkled throughout, but most of the time Jessabelle relies on building discomfort and unease through glimpses of figures that shouldn't be there, ominous sounds, and unnatural events among the oppressive bayou gloom. That makes it more unnerving when moments of extreme violence do come.

The end of the movie was a highlight for me, especially since many horror movies tend to fall apart in the last act. The closing events actually make sense within the context of the story and bring closure. The only real problem I had with the movie was that the resolution was fairly similar to another movie in the genre. That didn't ruin Jessabelle by any means, but the ending was so familiar that I won't mention the name of the other movie that I'm thinking of because anyone who has seen it will instantly have a fairly accurate idea of how Jessabelle concludes.

I recommend Jessabelle to anyone with an affinity for this type of horror - where atmosphere, mystery, and story take the lead over lots of action and mayhem.

The movie finally took an interesting turn in the end and bamm it ruined everything. I mean wtf is this ending. "Take me home, my love"

Sometimes when watching a supernatural thriller/horror you have to ask yourself 'should I really be scared by what I'm seeing, considering it's completely unrealistic and impossible to ever happen in the real world?' Or the other question that sometimes enters the equation is 'should I really be scared by what I'm seeing or is it all just in the character's mind anyway?' 'Jessabelle' doesn't completely avoid these questions being asked, but it does a great job of disguising the fact that they're there lurking in the background.

It's a tense, atmospheric ride from the opening scene right through to the closing credits. Sarah Snook is great as the lead and I couldn't help thinking throughout she might have been great as Carrie in the recent remake of Brian De Palmas classic. The frights are consistent throughout (including a particularly effective bathtub scene) but what really drives it is the story and mystery surrounding it. She isn't simply being haunted for the hell of it, there's a reason and the viewer is left curious to work out what it is.

It's all very similar in nature to 'The Skeleton Key' (a personal favourite of mine) with a unique twist to look forward to and an excellent mystery driven storyline. Director (and editor as he's probably better known as) Kevin Greutert is starting to become a personal favourite of mine. Anything he gets his hands on he works wonders with and creates brilliant material.

I watched this movie yesterday, the scenes are so electric, you can't close your eyes any time. Jessabelle(Sarah Snook) after suffering an accident will live in a old house with her dad and she pass very problems with ugly and very angry ghosts, the end of the movie was the best, it was so surprising. The effects of the movie are great, and the act too. I recommend for all people who like the genre horror supernatural, the movie is a little different and for me there aren't clichés. In the begin I jump with some scares of the movie, but could have more scares...James Wan work very good with the the credits end, was very cool. Watch this movie and discover the mystery about Jessabelle!!!!!

"The Dead are Back for Life" claims to be the tagline for Jessabelle, I think "God damn voodoo sh*t" might be more appropriate.

Sarah Snook stars as the titular Jessabelle, a woman who is forced to return to her father's house in Louisana after being stricken to a wheelchair after a terrible and tragic car accident. Once back home, she discovers a VHS tape of a dark persuasion featuring her long passed mother. Ominous premonitions, strange dreams and paranormal events happen around Jessabelle as she searches for the reason for these weird occurrences.

Along with Sarah Snook, Mark Webber is most prominent as Preston, the ex-high school love and former friend who agrees to help Jessabelle investigate the intention behind the sinister spirit tormenting her. Snook, whose accent shifts from strong Alabama to generic American, never quite hits the mark. Further, her constant pouting and furrowed eyebrows were increasingly distracting. Webber is significantly more effective and believable as a backwoods Louisiana lifer. Sadly, with so many distractions in the lead actor I just could not connect with the film.

Jessabelle markets itself as a film from the same producers as such successful horror films as Insidious and The Purge. Think of a recent horror film released currently and nine times out of ten it will be thanks in part to Blumhouse (BH) Productions. BH Production Company has the horror movie system down to a science and while the trailer and movie poster for Jessabelle are fantastic the story and film itself leaves some things to be desired.

While a horror film does not need to fit a subcategory, typically for simplicity's sake, it helps. From the trailer alone one is unsure whether Jessabelle will be a haunting, paranormal or some other horror type. Jessabelle is in fact a combination haunting/voodoo film that is most reminiscent of The Skeleton Key.

The film's horror is poorly paced, starting with a significant scare then regressing to nuanced mood changes and repeating the cycle a handful of times. A nice change, unfortunately this formula does not yield an overall ambiance of foreboding one hopes to get from a horror film.

Jessabelle is fine for a horror movie but it is unremarkable and can not compare to its stronger peers. The story and potential is evident but does not come together. Not particularly scary or frightening at any point the 'scary moments' are more eerie than anything else.

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