American Poltergeist

At first I thought I was still on Pornhub. From the very beginning, the acting, dialogues, sound and filming were all ridiculously amateurish and tacky. The wanna-be actors couldn't even walk naturally, less alone talk. The sound changes from scene to scene and you could even see the boom mic at one time. The makeup artists transformed what was to be a scary mannequin into a sad grotesque clown and Donna Spangler, who plays the villain, should be banned from ever appearing on camera (I doubt anyone who has seen 5 minutes if this movie would ever cast her anyway). This piece of wasted film roll deserves to be shown to arts students to let them know exactly what not to do.

The official definition of what constitutes a poltergeist would run something like this"a spirit believed to manifest its presence by rappings and other noises and also by acts of mischief, such as throwing furniture about". Within four minutes of the start I was already hoping that a wardrobe would fly across the room and scythe through the entire cast. I hope for their sakes that none of them EVER watch this film that they performed in as it would surely drive them to at least self-harm. The presence of Leslie Nielsen, God bless him, would surely have rescued this awful, awful attempt to scare us. My fascination with how dreadful it was grew at an almost exponential rate with each passing minute. The wooden policeman obviously failed his zombie night-class exam and they just told him to audition for any film that requires a semi-animated lamppost. One line in the film chilled me into thinking that the worse-case scenario was about to happen. What if there was going to be a 20 minute intermission without the possibility of a toilet break or even an ice-cream? What if the second half of the film then resumed running backwards to the beginning with people ascending stairs facing the wrong way and regurgitating chewed-up burgers from their mouths and reassembling the whole on their barbecue plates? That would have really spooked me. Mercifully the director had some shred of compassion for his(surely)captive audience and limited this travesty to a mere 71 minutes including credits, which is in this case is an ironic misnomer of the first order. The stampede for the exit will result in multiple casualties. You have been warned.....

This is the worst film I've ever seen and that's saying something. It scores minus points out of ten. Anyone saying this is anything other than terrible clearly need their head examining. I wouldn't even class this as a movie, give a few kids an iPhone for a weekend and they could come up with something better than this trash. Awful acting and terrible film making. It's a shame because it's not a bad plot and had it been done well then this could've been a half decent project. Normally with terrible films you can laugh at how bad they are, but this was the dullest, most miserable 80-some minutes that I'll never get back. AVOID at all costs.

The college friends Taryn, her brother Michael, his girlfriend Niki, Jenna and Stacey move to comfortable rooms in a house in Fall River, Massachusetts. The owner, Dianna Eastbrock, receives them and soon Taryn feels that something strange is happening in the house. She investigates and learns that two tragedies happened in the house in 04 August 1892 and 1992. Now 04 August is coming and Taryn feels that she is connected to the mysterious house. What is the secret of the house?

"American Poltergeist" is among the worst movies I have ever seen. The production is amateurish and the cast is terrible highlighting Donna Spangler and Nevada Vargas among the worst. In the end, only the art of the DVD cover saves in this movie. My vote is one (awful).

Title (Brazil): "American Poltergeist"

If you are hoping for a proper ghost movie, as I did given the "American Poltergeist" title, then you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you are looking for a pseudo-slasher movie with a woman in an old dress and lousy green make-up on her face, then this is exactly what you are looking for.

Story-wise, then "American Poltergeist" (aka "The House of Lizzie Borden") was just about as generic and predictable as they come in the haunted horror genre. Only a few paranormal things happened in the house, which seemed okay and to slowly build up to something bigger, but then Lizzie Borden manifested in the shape of a woman in an old dress and with very questionable make-up. And then the movie just fell apart. And it got especially wonderful when a non-clergyman started to perform an exorcism.

For a horror movie the only thing scary was the lack of anything even remotely spooky, scary or disturbing.

Well, I wasn't fully honest there. There is one scary thing, and that was the acting of Donna Spangler. Apparently she thinks that moving, speaking and basically doing everything in such a slow pace, that is best described as a drug-induced stupor, is considered acting. It was so painful to witness. All she did was essentially just amplifying the stupidity of the movie.

"American Poltergeist" was a disappointment of unfathomable proportions. And I should have seen it coming, as the reviewers either all really loved or hated the movie; there seemed to be no middle ground. I, if you haven't guessed it already, is of the latter option.

If you enjoy a proper horror and/or haunting movie, then you shouldn't watch this particular movie.