User reviews

The Altar is a ghost story in the classic tradition. Meg (Olivia Williams), Alec (Matthew Modine) and their children move in to a decrepit Yorkshire mansion whilst Meg restores it for the owner. Over the next couple of months the haunted nature of the house becomes apparent, with the usual banging sounds, slamming doors and ethereal appearances. Most of the film relies heavily on Olivia Williams and she does an OK job, with Matthew Modine limping in towards the end.

Undoubtedly, the film borrows heavily from other ghost and spirit films, most notably The Shining, but it was almost like playing bingo, identifying tropes from other films as it progressed, such as The Exorcist, Don't Look Now, etc. The TV movie feel and austere feel of the grand old house give a 1970s drama feel to the film. Some may associated this with quality drama, some with cheap production values.

There are some plus points: the old Yorkshire mansion and it's windswept grounds give a good background feeling, and the explicit pictures of the ghosts is usual and scarier than most in the genre - more like The Grudge than Turn of the Screw.

Overall, I was left with the question, why? Did this movie really need to be made?

I love a good ghost story. I practically worship a great ghost story. Sadly, Altar is neither. It has its moments, and it's not a complete waste of time to watch, but in my opinion it started with all the makings of a truly interesting story and mixed it all up into a batch of...mixed up.

The true star of the film is its Yorkshire manor location. Now, if I'd been handed this set to work with (and if I, you know, actually made movies), Altar is NOT the story I'd have come up with. I actually felt a bit annoyed at the movie for not living up to such a classic haunted house setting! The premise was simple enough, and it started out in fairly contemporary spooky fashion, but there was just not the right kind of follow through. Rather than spine tingles and after-view thoughts about mortality, the climax delivered only a mash-up of effects and incoherent, half-explored themes.

I will say this: the actors who played the children did great. Williams did fine in her role, and even Modine did the best he could with what he was given (his character was the biggest mess in the mix, with some truly uncomfortable scenes - and not in a horror/mystery sort of way).

Generally, you could do a lot worse for your hour and a half, but if you want a great haunted house / ghost story, look elsewhere. It's been done a thousand times better at least hundreds of times already.

A young family move to an isolated house which the mother has been hired to restore only to discover that presences still linger casting a hold over her artist sculpturing husband.

Taking a leaf from a James Herbert novel and channelling countless haunted films Altar is an effective ghost story chiller, however, what sets director/writer Nick Willing's offering apart are the practical and some special effects which have an optical natural feel as opposed to the usual ineffective blatant CGI.

Willing delivers some genuinely eerie visuals and creepy moments, this coupled with a great score and on location shoot help give some credence and atmosphere to the proceedings. Matthew Modine's Hamilton sports a Shining Jack Torrence like woollen jumper (the writer character is replaced here by an artist) and mimics Torrence's transformation (although quite speedy) still Modine gives an intense performance. Both the younger actors are effective, actress Antonia Clarke is notable as Penny. Olivia Williams gives convincing performance which complements the naturalistic writing and setting.

While it breaks no new ground in terms of ghost stories or twist endings it's a solid old school British horror.

It's always a warning sign when a film bypasses cinema release to go straight on TV, so when THE HAUNTING OF RADCLIFFE HOUSE (original title: ALTAR) appeared on UK TV on Boxing Day I knew something was up. And, unsurprisingly, it turns out to be very bad indeed: a complete rip-off of a film made by people with no understanding of how the ghost story genre works.

The film features a pair of past-it actors (Olivia Williams and Matthew Modine) as a married couple who move into a creepy old mansion in the Yorkshire moors with their bratty kids. Unsurprisingly, the place is haunted, and the haunting takes the most obvious route imaginable: dumb ghost scares ripped off from THE GRUDGE, a possession straight out of THE SHINING, and a myriad other scenes ripped off from elsewhere. When the film does try something new (like a ghostly encounter in broad daylight) it just falls flat.

The production values are acceptable here, but the level of cliché is just too high for it to be enjoyable. The grey filter cinematography has been done to death, the performances are shrill and histrionic (and Williams just CANNOT carry a movie) and the scares silly. Oddly, much of this seems to have been copied from an old favourite of mine, the '90s-era video horror game PHANTASMAGORIA, except without the fun factor. Throw in some dodgy historical rumblings and an equally dodgy cameo from SIGHTSEERS star Steve Oram and you have a complete train wreck of a movie. M. R. James would be spinning in his grave...

If you've seen a fair share of horror films, you can tick off not only the mash up of plot points but the composition of shots, camera tricks, and the musical flourishes.

The Legend of Hell House, The Amityville Horror, The Shining, The Haunting, Rose Red, Dead Again, Darkness, Burnt Offerings, Poltergeist, The Ninth Gate, etc. It's strange and weird enough, but the plot doesn't cohere and devolves into the straight to video mess it is.

By the time things turn a corner and the elder daughter starts to get rolled into the mix, it's like you're watching a new movie, as if they're trying to restart in the third reel. But that's the film in a nutshell, constantly restarting with a new conflict that sort of connects but not really.

Nick Willing best known for his epic TV Mini-Series like Nederland and Tin Man, takes us on a different journey out on the mores. Just when you thought the days of atmospheric storytelling had given way to shaky cameras and CGI comes this chilling tale it grabs you draws you in gently with strange often inexplicable behavior from Mathew Moline. Eerie noises fill the quiet architecture and landscape. Olivia Williams delivers a strong performance as the wife and mother and its through her you find yourself saying don't open that door, don't walk in the dark, you will find some genuine scares. Reminiscent of classics like The Haunting, Ghost Story and more recently the Woman in Black. Crappy, atmospheric, chilling, well paced, directed with finesse and style, captivating yet chilling camera angles Mr. Willing has won many Emmy's for his writing and directing here he shows the ability to create engaging mature Gothic horror for adults. I gave it a 7.

I sat down to watch the 2014 movie here in 2019 solely because it was a horror movie and because I hadn't seen it before. I can't claim to have ever heard about the movie, nor did I know who starred in it prior to finding it by sheer random chance.

The storyline in "Altar" was fairly adequately. It was, however, suffering from being sort of generic and also from having way too little happening throughout the course of the entire movie. This made the movie feel rather prolonged and tedious, to be honest. And I must admit that my interest in the movie dwindled as the story trotted on and on with director and writer Nick Willing at the helm.

For a horror mystery "Altar" was lacking horror elements, so the mystery labeling of the genre would be more accurate. There simply was nothing scary anywhere in the movie, despite the fact that director Nick Willing was eagerly trying with some jump scares and stereotypical scenes to spook the audience. The only problem with this was, that it simply didn't work.

The atmosphere in the movie was adequate, and definitely had potential to add a lot of flavor to the movie. But this wasn't really properly utilized, and it just sort of fizzled without any greater effect.

As for the acting in the movie, well Olivia Williams and Matthew Modine definitely carried the movie quite well.

All in all, then "Altar" was a less than mediocre movie in terms of entertainment value and enjoyment. It was watchable, for sure. But it was hardly a particularly memorable or outstanding movie. For me, this 2014 movie will fade into oblivion without leaving a lasting impression on me. There are far better horror movies readily available if you enjoy a proper horror movie.

Atmospheric haunted house horror about a designer who moves her husband and kids into a spooky Yorkshire manor she has been hired to restore. Beautifully shot on location, director/screenwriter Nick Willing makes the most of the subdued, wild beauty of the Yorkshire moors. I wish we had a better sense of the gorgeous house the family takes over -- for all the reliance on secret rooms and bricked up passageways, the internal layout of the house remains vague and generic. Also less defined than they should be are the couple's two children, who we don't get to know very well. This makes the peril they are in less compelling than it could be. Olivia Williams does a great job as the emotional center of the film, trying to hold her family together in the face of mounting financial pressures and a menacing presence that seems to grow more powerful. Like many such stories, the supernatural here is an expression of the resentments and strains that have crept into William's marriage to her failed artist husband, played by a miscast Matthew Modine. While it doesn't break any new ground, "Altar" builds and mostly maintains a high creepiness factor, especially when Modine discovers a new medium and new canvas for his art. This is a good, old-fashioned, restrained horror film, well worth checking out.

No, this is not great filmmaking.

(Must be a lot of cast and crew having rated this on here.)

Just going to ramble about this in no special order.

Some places it seems like they have used, I don't know, Adobe Premiere effects, or worse yet, effects that are in the camera itself.. Thats a little wtf, right?

As far as I can remember, one or two short scenes are almost creepy, actually. But they are way outweighed by what is wrong, and bad, and not creepy.

Olivia Williams is annoying as crap! She has the worst looking hair, and it is even a point in the movie! I got mad just looking at her stupid hair. That's not good.

There is nothing new here, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but what is here, is not done very good, and that's a bad thing.

The plot with the wife and the husband and the story of the house and the this and the that, could have been cool, but it is just not good enough.

One scene with a sculpture and some smashing is kind of cool. Best part of the movie.

Luckily I didn't spend a dime for this nonsense, I downloaded it online. I couldn't say this is the worst horror I've ever seen but its one on the list. The acting is weird. There is no story build up. There is nothing in this for the movie to get a rating of 5+. While I downloaded it, it was 6.8+. Good movies like Unfriended was far more better gets lower score and this shitty crap gets 6+. I don't know what else to type. If you got chance to watch it, then please burn the disc or delete the file from your PC/Mac. Save your time and try to put a 1 rating to show the power of IMDb. I just don't know what else to say, just wanted to complete this 10 line thingy.

The plot of this film appears to be more or less a complete rip-off of a two-part 'special' called 'The Prayer Tree' by David Kane from the paranormal investigation series 'Sea of Souls' first shown in 2007. Replace the Rosicrucians with the Golden Dawn and the whole premise is 'hauntingly' familiar. The original story was also a lot better and made more sense! Other elements in the film also seem to have been borrowed from elsewhere, as noted in other reviews. The atmosphere of menace which should have been built up was not maintained, and the film really didn't raise any chills. Not a good use of viewing time, I'm afraid.

This is a bad movie. When I knew the cast, I thought it had to be good. Experienced actors with a great curriculum of good movies. Well, it started out very bad and it gets worse till the end. A lot of clichés. The same and old ones that everybody saw in thousand of other horror type movies. Bad acting, which surprised me. It seemed that Mathew was not there at all....he was around the movie scene and stopped a while to make some filming. Didn't feel him at all. The plot, it's old and the same one, ever and ever again. The effects are bad and didn't scare one bit. Not even the slamming doors, or the sounds...nothing is capable of scare in this picture. My question is: why someone bothers to do a movie like thousands of other? and why did the actors accept being part of this? I really don't understand. There are a lot of stupid scenes also. It's really not good enough to spend time watching.

Also watch The Haunting in Connecticut (2009). Back to this film, Altar. The film is about the Hamiltons, a family that moves into a large country house on the Yorkshire Moors to supervise its restoration from a dilapidated B&B to the original Victorian grandeur.

Unknown to them, the house is haunted because of the many ritualistic sacrifices conducted on an altar located in the root cellar of the mansion. The spirits of the mansion make themselves known gradually, and when the do, a foreboding sequence of events are set in motion...

The only well known actor to me is Mathew Modine(Full Metal Jacket (1987), Pacific Heights (1990), And the Band Played On (1993, HBO Cable)). To me this marks a low-point in his career as an actor. He is a favorite of mine, and I have seen many good films in which he has starred. Opposite him is Olivia Williams(The Postman(1997), Rushmore(1998), The Sixth Sense (1999)) a well known English film, stage and television actress. Williams has a much larger role than Modine in the film - she is the main character of the film.

The director Nick Willing, in his directorial feature-film debut, is unconvincing. He handles the subject matter in a drab way. He has directed the film from his own screenplay, and it is either the screenplay which is at fault or the fact that it is unsuitable material for a genuine horror film. The film was a bore. I found my mind wandering to other things - rather than the film I was watching. The actors also are unconvincing. They act just to get the job done and are not involved with the film. This also shows the weakness of the director for not getting more out of these capable actors.

The sound effects are inadequate, the special effects are those you see in U.S. TV serials maybe ten or fifteen years ago. The effects do not scare you as most horror films do, nor do they provide atmosphere to the film.

More horror movies to see: House on Haunted Hill(1959), The Innocents(1961), The Haunting(1963), Burnt Offerings(1976), The Amityville Horror(1979),The Shining(1980),Poltergeist(1982), Haunted(1995).

Thanks for reading, may you live long and prosper.

I fell asleep... that says everything I need to say.

Okay, what this movie is not - The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, Carrie or The Shining. Does it have elements of those classic films? In spades. I'm guessing the shortcoming here was the budget. It could've benefited from more special effects, but it is what it is - a ghost story.

I feel bad for the movie because there's nothing original in it. You've seen everything in it before. As a matter of fact, some of the scenes were so carbon-copy The Shining that Kubrick must be rolling in his grave. I gave the film a 7 because, seeing it, I didn't feel it was a waste of time. It was a relatively solid possession/ghost story movie, and it definitely reminded me of the fare being exported from South Korea; still, it wasn't a total time waster. Would I watch it again? Not really. For whatever it was, it was decently made. I'm not complaining.