1st watched 10/21/2009 – 7 out of 10 (Dir-Lucky McKee): Scary, atmospheric chiller about a girls boarding school in the woods that is haunted by something.(which we really don't find out what it is 'til the last scene of the movie) A girl, played by Agnes Bruckner, is brought to the school by her parents supposedly because she's gifted and they want her to be their prize to gloat about to other parents, but actually they are just getting her out of the way because she's different. The school is eerie right from the beginning with a very straight-laced unemotional headmistress, played perfectly by Patricia Clarkson, a twitching teacher and other scary-looking old folk. We can tell the young girl is different at the beginning and that she doesn't mesh well with others but we don't know if the voices she hears are in her head or are coming from the woods. A story is told in a tongue-in-cheek way about how the school was established by some witches that come out of the woods, but again it's hard to tell how real this is. This is what makes this movie good – it's ambiguity. There is an eerie chill around but you don't know why until the end. And then the end isn't an all-out gorefest but is scary and definitely different. This is one of the better scary movies I've seen in awhile. It does what it's supposed to do without being over-the-top and overly-gross. These aren't the type of movies I usually enjoy, so this is really saying something coming from me. I'd like to own this movie, but I might be too scared to watch it again.(I admit it OK, I'm a loaf)
