This is one of the many guest reviews from Movie Rob, check he site out for many more reviews
“When people believed the earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It’s the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we’ll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear” – Dr. John Markway
Number of Times Seen – 1 (8 Oct 2018)
Brief Synopsis – A Paranormal expert travels to a house that is perceived to be haunted in order to try and discover its secrets.
My Take on it – I will be the first to admit that I am far from being the biggest fan of films of the horror genre. In fact, I avoid them as much as possible.
I decided to watch this film because it was chosen as the LAMB MOTM for October and it’s always fun to have seen a film before I listen to a podcast of fans discussing the movie.
In addition, I could also use this film as an entry for Darren’s ABC challenge and therefore get away without having to endure yet another horror film that I probably wouldn’t enjoy very much.
Personally, I didn’t find this film thrilling at all and in fact, most of it seemed to just creep along at a pretty slow pace.
By the end, they had presented more questions than answers which is usually quite frustrating for me since I like having definitive closure instead of ambiguous strings of a plot.
The cast is quite competent here and makes us believe what they are trying to accomplish and I loved seeing Russ Tamblyn in a different kind of role for him.
The problem was I kept waiting for him to break out in songs about Sharks and Jets. 🙂
The special effects seem quite mild here, yet they do manage to make things feel realistic in a way that they can be interpreted as being possibly supernatural or just natural.
This film was probably perceived as being much more suspenseful when it was made 55 years ago, but watching it now, it doesn’t seem to come even close to having that same kind of effect.
Bottom Line – Not very thrilling IMHO. As with many horror films things creep along very slowly and even by the end there are more questions asked than answered. The cast is pretty good and it was fun seeing Russ Tamblyn in this film without the need to have him sing. The effects all seem quite mild and even if this film was perceived as being quite scary when it came out 55 years ago, it doesn’t manage to have the same effect now.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Claire Bloom was intrigued to the play the role of a woman who was attracted to another woman. She said she got along with everyone on the set, except for Julie Harris, who tried everything to avoid her and not talk to her. At the end of the shoot, Harris went over to Bloom’s house with a present and explained that the reason she had kept to herself was to stay in character, because Harris’ role in the film was that of an outsider that none of the others understand or will listen to. Bloom was happy to hear the real reason behind Harris’ behavior, since Bloom stated that she really liked Harris and could not understand what she herself had done wrong to be treated like that by her co-star. (From IMDB)
Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)
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