Director: Mac Carter
Writer: Andrew Barrer (Screenplay)
Starring: Harrison Gilbertson, Liana Liberato, Jacki Weaver, Ione Skye, Brian Wimmer
Plot: An introvert teen befriends his new neighbor, and together the couple begin to explore the haunted house that his family has just purchased.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Solid but Forgettable Horror
Story: Haunt starts as the Asher’s Evan (Gilbertson), Emily (Skye), Alan (Wimmer), Sara (Chuchran) and Anita (Harris) move into a massive new home, known for the Morello Curse where the family were nearly all killed in strange unexplained suicides apart from Janet (Weaver) the mother of the family.
Evan is the teenage son of the family and finds himself in the room where one of the suicides happened and after meeting fellow teenager and outsider Sam (Liberato) the two become close friends. Evan and Sam discover the equipment to communicate with the dead and soon find themselves talking and being visited by the ghosts of the Morello’s.
Thoughts on Haunt
Characters/Performance – Evan is the son of the family that finds himself living in the room that previously had a murder, now after his family moves him there, he has no friends but soon makes one in Sam as he starts to learn the haunting side of the home. Sam is the local girl that has been dealing with abuse at home and sees Evan as her escape from that world. Janet is the doctor and lone survivor of the Morello Curse that has haunted the home.
Performance wise, Harrison Gilbertson is good in the leading role as the curious teen as is Liana Liberato through the film. the performance are all fine through the film.
Story – The story focuses around the idea of a haunted house that a new family moves into and becomes the latest targets of the spirits haunting the home, well we have seen this before and this tie we don’t get to learn too much new in this film either, it plays out like an ABC of haunted house movies and you could see plenty of better ones.
Horror/Mystery/Romance – The horror in this film mostly comes from slow building scenes that then turn into jump scares that don’t click to their full amount while there is a mystery behind everything but it isn’t the most difficult thing to solve and the early romance is fine but nothing overly serious.
Settings – Most of the film is set in this one house and this is an easy setting choice for a film about a haunted house, we don’t need to leave it because the scary stuff only happens in the house.
Special Effects – The effects are mixed mostly because some are good others look weak even though the film is trying to create its own look.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror that is similar to better ones so the simple way of looking at it is to say look at The Conjuring for the better option.
Overall: Simple Horror
Rating
