The Skeptic

Honestly I was really enjoying this, but I feel like it ended too abruptly/prematurely right when we should've gotten a more intense and emotional "fight scene" I guess you could say. Honestly even another 10-20 minutes could've really helped make the ending more enjoyable and satisfying. I was also hoping we would see more of Cassie and that she would play a role in the ending of the movie. I would probably have rated this a bit higher if it wasn't for the ending because I feel like it had interesting characters and dynamics, as well as good performances from all of the cast. If you're on the fence about watching this, I would say do it since it was pretty enjoyable for the most part!

TIM DALY stars as a skeptical lawyer with no belief in the supernatural who moves into the house of a deceased aunt when his marriage breaks up. He soon believes that he's not alone in the creepy mansion and begins to doubt his sanity after some encounters of a ghostly kind that might just be happening in his head.

Before he knows it, he's getting assistance from a woman psychic (ZOE SALDANA) who tells him the house holds a grim secret. Gradually, we discover that the key to the haunting lies in his past, when he was subjected to harsh treatment at the age of five from a mother whose punishment makes "Mommie Dearest" look like "Snow White." So far, so good.

There are some nice shivery moments but we keep hoping for our hero to see the light and discover just what is going on. It takes a little too long to reach that conclusion and when it does, the ending is an unsatisfying letdown that leaves you jolted just as the end credits begin to unfold. That's it? Yes, an ambiguous and terribly disappointing and empty stone wall conclusion that provides more questions than answers.

Most viewers will feel cheated by the ending, after a fairly good case of goose pimples from a low key, rather tepid ghost story. In the central role of the lawyer, Tim Daly proves almost as adept at drama as he was in comedy roles. TOM ARNOLD, as a sympathetic colleague, has little to do but bark his lines in snappy fashion.

A lawyer's aunt dies and he inherits her house, which she believed to be haunted. He decides to stay there while separated from his wife, and why shouldn't he? After all, he's a die-hard skeptic.

This is a very low-key haunted house tale. I'd say it works more as a mystery than outright horror, though it's all fairly straightforward. While the old house is an atmospheric setting, the film is devoid of any chilling moments. Well, I take that back. There is one good scare, but it turns out to be a false one, no threat. The atmosphere of the house is there, it's just that the filmmakers fail to utilize it to any sizable extent. I also felt that the ending was too abrupt. I don't mind abrupt endings, but this one really pushed it.

Tim Daly is okay as the "unemotional" lead. Not really a likable sort, I'd say. Tom Arnold is here too, but his part is basically a nothing role. It's Zoe Saldana who steals the show as a high-strung, yet appealing psychic. She could go on to greater things, and no, I absolutely do not consider Avatar a greater thing.

The Skeptic isn't bad, but it's nothing too memorable. I do admire it for attempting a quiet, more intimate ghost story in this day of obnoxious, in your face haunting flicks.

When the forty year old skeptical lawyer Bryan Becket (Timothy Daly) receives a phone call late night, he is informed that his distant aunt had just died and he can only think in the inheritance of her manor. Becket decides to leave his wife Robin Becket (Andrea Roth) and his son to live in the house while selling it and give an opportunity to Robin to rethink their relationship. However his partner Sully (Tom Arnold) advises him that his aunt had a will and the house would belong to the institute of technology managed by Dr. Warren Koven (Bruce Altman) that research sleeping disorders. Bryan visits Dr. Koven and meets his psychic patient Cassie (Zoe Saldanha). Sooner Bryan is haunted by whispers and voices and discovers that the unknown is more frightening than any reality.

"The Skeptic" is a scary ghost story of haunted house that startles the viewer with creepy scenes. The beginning and development of the plot are excellent and Tim Daly performs a skeptical lawyer that feels lost when faces a paranormal activity in his aunt's house and is haunted by a mystery of his forgotten past. Unfortunately the conclusion is awful and spoils the story, giving the disappointing sensation that the budget had ended and the producer needed to finish the film anyway without any care to the characters or situation. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Herança Paranormal" ("Paranormal Inheritage")

I was hoping for something better from the skeptic really. It was a film that was not very scary and yet again its another film with a bad ending that makes it feel like it was not worth it. So theres this man called bryan. He gets a call the second his aunt is found dead and just like that he moves into the house she has left behind. Bryan does not actual own the house as his aunt left it to an institute that specilises in paranormal stuff so he helps them and zoe saladana and in the process discovers things about his own past. The script was written quickly the acting is decent just not a scary film.