Writer: Donald Martin (Screenplay)
Starring: Amanda Crew, Adam Brody, Zoe Belkin, Sheila McCarthy, Krista Bridges, Alison Brooks, Booth Savage
Plot: A young couple’s dream of starting a family shatters as they descend into the depths of paranoia and must struggle to survive an evil presence that wants nothing more than their very own lives.
Tagline – Desire can get you past anything, even death.
Runtime: 1 Hour 21 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Leaves You Feeling Empty
Story: Isabelle starts when the Kane couple Larissa (Crew) and Matt (Brody) suffer the tragedy of losing their unborn baby, Matt returns to work to help him through the events, while Larissa is left alone in their house, where she starts hearing the cries of a baby.
The more time Larissa stays in the house, the more she notices the eyes of the neighbor Isabelle (Belkin) watching over her, even visiting her, despite being wheelchair bound.
Thoughts on Isabelle
Characters – Larissa is the mother that loses her baby, she has experienced a personal trauma, one that is impossible to understand unless you have experienced, she does become paranoid after her neighbor starts watching her and seeing her around the house, leaving her wondering if she is being haunted or whether she is being haunted for real. Matt is the husband and lawyer that is starting a new job, he works to get over the loss, with it getting heavily teased that an intern is trying to seduce him. We could have seen him getting more stressed out at work, which does start to get hinted about. There is a lot we have had with Matt’s character that does seem to get forgotten in places. Isabelle is the neighbor who watches from the window, disabled being left wheelchair bound, she appears to be haunting Larissa despite her condition. Ann is the mother that is very quiet keeping to herself for the most part.
Performances – Amanda Crew in the leading role is the best of the performers, she does make us understand just how much trauma she would have been through. Adam Brody does start the film well, but the less we see from the character the less he has to do, Zoe Belkin might bring the creepy look, but most of the actions are difficult to take seriously, mainly because of the CGI around it.
Story – The story here follows a family that suffer the loss of an unborn child and the trauma they have been through sees the wife start to question whether their neighbor is haunting them or not. For the most part the story is a pretty routine horror, it would pass on the it is watchable even if you know where the story will go, the problem comes from the final act which just leaves you scratching your head more than feeling like we got an ending to the film. Certain side stories that get hinted at early on, just don’t seem to come to pass either which leave them feeling like we had a couple of needless scenes too.
Horror – The horror does fall into the idea that there is nearly always something behind Larissa, we have elements of possession, but not enough to bring any true scares.
Settings – The film does use the home settings for the film, which does see how Larissa is getting haunted in a place that should be safe.
Special Effects – The effects in the film do feel clunky too, most don’t look like they are on a strong level in anyway, looking like a stretch picture rather than actual effects.
Scene of the Movie – Meeting the priest.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The final act.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror that does follow a routine, only for it to become predictable and when it tries to take a risk, it only confuses.
Overall: Routine Horror.