The Haunted

Just finished watching the UK TV premiere screening of The Haunting. As other reviews have stated it is essentially a young female care assistant, her first night on the job, skulking around a creepy old house, alone with her bed ridden male patient. Or are they alone? Of course not, there is a resident ghost. Trouble is we get to see too much of it and any spooky effect soon runs dry. And if you found yourself in such a creepy place surely the basement is one place you would avoid. Not our dim witted heroine! There are a few decent jump scares but the movie is obviously cheap, the picture quality is poor and the shakey camera very irritating. And the ending makes no sense. OK for a once only time filler but nothing more.

Why is it so difficult for filmmakers to tell a proper story anymore? Whilst there are some very atmospheric moments in this, the storyline is very basic, and the supposed twist at the end just had me scratching my head. Having read an explanation of the ending, that just makes the rest of the film make even less sense.

Also shaky cam really detracts from the film a lot too... Had promise, but it's a no from me.

When I sat down to watch the 2018 horror movie "The Haunted" from writer and director David Holroyd, I must admit that I had expected just a bit more than what this movie actually turned out to be.

For a horror movie, then "The Haunted" was anything but haunted. In fact, it was actually a rather stale and mundane movie, with very little of any worth happening throughout the course of the 1 hour and 15 minutes that the movie trotted on for. There was a single scene that made me jump, but aside from that then the movie was boring and slow-paced.

The storyline was simple and easy to follow, I will give the movie that much. But it was perhaps just a bit too simplistic, because there was next to nothing happening throughout the entire movie. Essentially, you just watch Emily (played by Sophie Stevens) pace and run through the house, mostly only accompanied with the light from her mobile phone and some dubious and questionable camerawork being done while trailing her.

There are very few actors and actresses in the movie, which means that there was a bigger pressure resting on the performers to deliver spot on performances to make the movie work. So did they? Well, not really. Now, I am not saying that the acting was bad, but the performers just had absolutely nothing to work with in terms of a proper script, storyline and dialogue.

I managed to sit through the entire ordeal that is "The Haunted", hoping that the movie would be a slow starter and eventually pick up its pace and come up with a more captivating and spooky story. Such a thing never happened.

There is little or no reason for why you should sit down to watch this 2018 horror movie, because it is just simply too mundane and boring. My rating of "The Haunted" is a mere three out of ten stars. This is definitely not a movie that I will be watching a second time.

My quick rating - 3,9/10. Don't mind the 1/10 ratings on IMDB, it surely is not that bad however it isn't all that good either. This movie is just a story about one woman stuck in a haunted house for one night. Straight and to the point. Couple jump scares here and there, and a very slow burn to a twist ending that really doesn't surprise anyone. A decent attempt on a shoestring budget with a solid performance but she just doesn't have much to work with. I'd pass up on this one.

This movie was really disappointing. The trailer has more watchability than the movie itself. Despite the absolute boring and predictable moments of the movie, the twist at the end was very poor and predictable. It really felt like something someone wrote because they wanted to see if they cauldron make a scary story. There are tidbits of story lingering throughout but the "climax" of the story is sloppy at best. Perhaps someone just wanted to make a movie with this twist, but didn't know how to get there, and it shows. Then there is little payoff for the hour you spend trying to get there only to to get a couple minutes of wrap up. There is so much left hanging that I found this movie to be incredibly disappointing. It had what could have been a good foundation, but was left floundering at the end.