The Bake Street Hauntings

The Bake Street Hauntings is a good horror movie. It's not gory, but will give you a few good scares. I thought the main characters were genuine (Nina & Adam Livingston). The production value wasn't great, but with these types of movies, it can work. As for plot, it is interesting- but, nothing new. A couple lives in a house for a week in exchange for $2 million bucks. You can see where this is going, lol. I would live in Iran for half the amount, but ghosts scare the you know what out of me. I won't give anything away, but if I were to change anything, it would be the end credits. Once you see it, maybe you'll understand why. I agree with the other review I read about supporting independent film. I don't believe true indie films star Hollywood stars like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and have budgets of a zillion dollars.

I was initially going to rate this a little lower because while the scares are good, I didn't believe the characters. This is about a couple being paid $2 million to stay in a haunted house and I just didn't find their willingness to stay (despite the money) or their actual physical reactions to actual ghostly things happening in front of their faces believable. I still don't but I do believe, after thinking about it, that there are people dumb enough to continue staying in a literal haunted house. I mean there are still Trump supporters in 2023 so yeah, people are this dumb. There was certainly enough to be scared about though as the ghostly happenings in the film are very effective, mainly because of the grainy, black-and-white film style. With better characters and even a slightly better plot, this could have been really, really good.

First of all, to the reviewer who mentioned that Philip Seymour Hoffman would not be in a true indie film, I would suggest he looks at the early films he appeared in. Many of the bigger stars got the start in low budget films.

Since most of the reviews here are positive, I can only surmise that they were written by people somehow involved in this film or knew someone involved in the film. I support indie films but this does not qualify as a film. If you search around for other reviews of this film, you will get a better representation of the true value of what you are watching. With the advent of inexpensive video cameras, almost anyone can make a "film". I believe that is the case here. It's almost an insult to real filmmakers who take their craft seriously. This is boring, no structure, horrible video and audio quality. Do not waste your time on this one. I did and I will never get that valuable time back! I am so tired of reading these great reviews and then watching something that is a piece of garbage. The purpose of this review process is to give an HONEST appraisal not helping a friend out!

I gave this film a 10/10 only to offset the ridiculously low votes which currently have it at 2.1. In all honesty, it's closer to a 6 or 7/10. The low ratings were obviously submitted by people who don't like the 'found footage' sub-genre to begin with, so their opinions are completely biased the moment they see that it's mostly shot with a hand-held camcorder.

As another reviewer stated, the film doesn't break any new ground, but it's quite effective for what it is. The acting is very competent, the story interesting (though a bit predictable), and the overall atmosphere is quite creepy. While it doesn't establish anything new beyond what we have seen in the Paranormal Activity franchise, if you're a fan of these types of movies, you will definitely come away satisfied.

And no, I am not associated with the filmmakers in any manner whatsoever.

I bought the DVD after seeing the trailer online. It was pretty good- the main characters were down to earth and believable. I did jump twice, too. It felt similar to Paranormal Activity, which could be a good thing (if you're into that series). I'm more of a slasher-flick fan than this no-budget found-footage craze, but if you're into that, go see it. I wouldn't say it's a rip-off, cause this was based on the Ghost Wife shorts from 5-6 years back. It just seems that everyone is doing this stuff today. No, it's nothing you haven't seen before. At least, it's nothing I haven't seen before. No, it's not Citizen Kane. I don't think the director was trying to reinvent the wheel here. But, it's definitely horror and if you're a fan of the genre, I'd say support what's left of true indie film. In so many words, I had fun.