A Haunting at the Rectory

Borley Rectory is supposed to be one of the most Haunted places in Britain but it does not reflect in this movie .

'Haunting At The Rectory' is a Period Drama about a Vicar, his unsatisfied wife and a handy man who upon becoming her lover finds himself caught in the middle .

It is a period Drama that results in Murder and nothing more than that . It promises one thing and gives something entirely different .

I thought this movie was supposed to be about a haunted place, but it is, in fact, about infidelity. The story focuses on the Reverend's wife and the handyman's affair almost exclusively; so much that the supposed "paranormal" events look totally out of place.

This movie did not get anything right. It didn't look or feel like 1930 at all (I've seen documentaries about the 30s). The actors seemed wrong for their respective roles. The events were unrealistic and the characters' response to them illogical. The movie didn't seem to know where it wants to go or what it wants to do with itself.

The paranormal events were so few, so exaggerated, discorded and random that it'd make you think that, perhaps, they were edited into this movie from another movie by mistake.

The description: "A Reverend and his wife discover their new home has a deadly secret."

O.K., what "deadly secret"? Unless I missed something, this "secret" was never revealed...

I really don't understand the paranormal connection at all. This movies is about a cheating wife, not about paranormal activity. I didn't get what the ghost drivel, that was randomly shoved into a movie of entirely different genre, had to do with anything or what connection it was supposed to have to the story.

Basically, the whole thing is poorly pieced together and a bit messy. Perhaps it would appeal to "drama"- or even "crime"-lovers, but to label it as "mystery" is highly misleading to say the least.

Was drawn into seeing 'A Haunting at the Rectory', with a cool poster/cover, an attention-grabbing tagline, a somewhat intriguing if very derivative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre it fits under. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there (though there are decent to good ones as well), made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'A Haunting at the Rectory' is really quite abominable, with so many huge flaws and doesn't do anything with any potential it had. There is nothing good here in 'A Haunting at the Rectory', just amateur hour all round.

Going on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with cardboard thin and colourless personalities and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions), the effects are shoddy and all of the acting is lacking severely on the whole, that's actually an understatement as the worst of it is horrendous. Didn't get any chemistry from the leads and Lee Bane shows neither enthusiasm or subtlety. There is no sense of horror or engagement with the awful predicament they're in, and no connecting with the character, it just reeks of indifference which makes the viewer not care less too.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever, apparent from the very start, never recovering that interest is lost fast. The ending has no build-up and just ends ridiculously. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments (if there was any explanation for what the deadly secret promised by the tagline was it was missed by me, as has been said already) and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are none, thanks to stodginess and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be indifferently acted, interminably paced and statically directed.

A lot of 'A Haunting at the Rectory' has really dull and going nowhere plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling. The paranormal elements were very misplaced and unnecessary, when there they were there, which is far too infrequently, very randomly organised and overdone that it was bordering on comical.

Nothing freaky or interesting, no development and too derivative, while everything is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. There is nothing interesting or illuminating with what the film was trying to do and the drama is overwrought with no momentum and a lot of weirdness. The direction is barely there and disorganised and the music is ill-fitting. 'A Haunting at the Rectory' is very amateurish visually, too drearily lit and shows no care in the way it's shot. Calling the editing sloppy is insulting to the word sloppy, just no cohesion or flow at all.

Altogether, irredeemably terrible. 1/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is truly terrible!

An affront to all the movies that have gone before. The acting is abysmal and the script, I assume there was one? When the opening scenes begin the guy who comes to the house looking for a job as a handyman starts off with an Americanism " It sure is a wonderful place you have here reverend!" "Sure" is a word in that context that would never be heard in middle classes houses of England such as Borley rectory was supposed to be for at least another 40 years. It's also delivered in a bad RP accent reminiscent of amateur dramatics that cannot quite be pinned down as it apparently wanders between there and a cockney accent?

Also, for a house of dimensions there is an awful shortage of staff. At least there should have been a maid of all work to answer the door rather than the lady of the house answering it to the handyman surely? This script and movie has so many social and grammatical errors in the first few scenes that it's unrecoverable. The reverend, has all the character development of a door. In that he's wooden and untalented and really should behind the counter in a hardware store. There he could possible shine! He takes no references, has clearly never hired staff in his life, and just gives the job out like jumble at a church fair.

The applicant has his hat resting on the stool in the drawing room of all places. His hat should have been removed at the door and really should have been taken and placed to one side by the maid who answered the door. But of course the maid didn't answer the door because they didn't cast one. Servants in those days knew their place and would have been interviewed either in the study or the hall. It is such an amalgamation of bad writing, social faux-pas, bad acting, dodgy set dressing and woeful miscasting that one doesn't know what to say really. At 2.44 I had decided that there were too many mistakes to enjoyable to watch by the time I got to five minutes I had to switch it off.

Any more than that and I cannot tell you as life is too short to sit through this particular brand of tripe. I had to give it one star but really, it doesn't deserve it........

Watched this and was extremely disappointed. It's not actually a horror film, a more accurate description would be a drama without any drama. Nothing actually happens, characters just mope around rooms and moan about their lives. The acting is abysmal and could not even be classed as amateur dramatics standard.The actor that plays Frank Peerless is ironically named as I've never seen someone act so badly. I've no idea where he got the idea to talk in a mock cockney/toff accent- but its laughable. The vicar is about as wooden as they come and the whole thing is unbelievable and would be laughable if it wasn't so tedious.

If this is the standard of British filmaking there is no hope.