The best part about this movie is it's based on a real location with a real story behind it. So many horror movies are based on books or folklore, but it would be so easy for movie studios to pump out some decent low budget horror movies based on a real location. Every town has it's supposed haunted locations and ghost stories. All a studio has to do is take the basic fundamentals of a good horror movie and bobs your uncle. This movie however, did not do that.
There will be some spoilers, but I am going to keep it to the first bit before the haunting begins. To me the first part of a movie is usually a good indicator of what comes next. If the first bit is horrendous, well the rest will be horrendous.
The first 4:30 seconds of the movie is the opening credits. The credits drag on and on with it's annoying royalty free music. I think the credits were used to pad out the running time of this movie. The first scene of the movie conveys the point of how boring Annie, the main character is. It sets of up for the next scene where we find Annie and her colleague being told they are at risk of losing funding if they don't do something exciting to get financial backers interested in their field. It's a decent set up to the rest of the movie, but from here on out it only gets worse. Annie seems super frustrated with having to leave her boring research behind to travel to a different country and stay at a haunted castle. Most people would find this exciting, but not Annie. She would rather bore everyone to death than stay at a dank old castle in the middle of nowhere. Her words, not mine. Next we see Annie in here lovely apartment. Btw, it's too lovely for this character. I could see her living in a grey box with one picture on the wall that still has the stock picture in the frame. I guess the scene is supposed to convey how alone she is and from what I've seen so far it makes sense she's alone.
Our cast is off to sunny ol England where we find ourselves watching the standard traveling montage, but what's really funny about it is they hold this a conversation over a bunch of cuts in the traveling montage. It makes utterly no sense. It would be one thing if we were watching a minute long scene where they're talking, but there's several hours between cuts while they talk and what they say is some of the most American ignorant dialogue imaginable. The cast then makes their way into a pub/eatery for a bite to eat. The whole point of them being here is to set up a scene where one of the locals say, don't go there! You're gonna die a horrible death. The cast walks in and have the "we gotta eat here" look on their face. Annie really doesn't want to be here. She rather eat a microwaved meal for one at home, alone. So they walk up to the bar and talk with the bartender. For next few minutes they go on about Welsh Rabbit. You can have the Welsh rabbit with tomatoes and it's called a blushing bunny. At this point I assumed I was going to actually see what the dish looks like. I mean, they just gave us the run down on the darn thing and I don't even get to see what it looks like! The problem with that is this would have been a perfect time for more character development and some dialog about what their plan of action is, but instead we get nothing and that's the movie really. Here's a moment to use the basics of what makes a good horror movie. Build up a relationship with these characters and then build tension.
Instead, from here on out it just gets worse. I think they spent all of their budget on the location and winged it from here because it feels like a different movie once they get to the haunted castle. Bad acting, more royalty free music and the same sound effect used every time something remotely scary happens. Here they have this great location and they do nothing with it. I found myself pausing the movie near the end because I couldn't believe 80 plus minutes went by. I thought it was near the 45 minute mark. Well the movie ends and that's the best part. Overall the English actors do a pretty good job. The American actors range from decent to horrendous. At least in the credits they could have shown us what the heck Welsh rabbit is.
There will be some spoilers, but I am going to keep it to the first bit before the haunting begins. To me the first part of a movie is usually a good indicator of what comes next. If the first bit is horrendous, well the rest will be horrendous.
The first 4:30 seconds of the movie is the opening credits. The credits drag on and on with it's annoying royalty free music. I think the credits were used to pad out the running time of this movie. The first scene of the movie conveys the point of how boring Annie, the main character is. It sets of up for the next scene where we find Annie and her colleague being told they are at risk of losing funding if they don't do something exciting to get financial backers interested in their field. It's a decent set up to the rest of the movie, but from here on out it only gets worse. Annie seems super frustrated with having to leave her boring research behind to travel to a different country and stay at a haunted castle. Most people would find this exciting, but not Annie. She would rather bore everyone to death than stay at a dank old castle in the middle of nowhere. Her words, not mine. Next we see Annie in here lovely apartment. Btw, it's too lovely for this character. I could see her living in a grey box with one picture on the wall that still has the stock picture in the frame. I guess the scene is supposed to convey how alone she is and from what I've seen so far it makes sense she's alone.
Our cast is off to sunny ol England where we find ourselves watching the standard traveling montage, but what's really funny about it is they hold this a conversation over a bunch of cuts in the traveling montage. It makes utterly no sense. It would be one thing if we were watching a minute long scene where they're talking, but there's several hours between cuts while they talk and what they say is some of the most American ignorant dialogue imaginable. The cast then makes their way into a pub/eatery for a bite to eat. The whole point of them being here is to set up a scene where one of the locals say, don't go there! You're gonna die a horrible death. The cast walks in and have the "we gotta eat here" look on their face. Annie really doesn't want to be here. She rather eat a microwaved meal for one at home, alone. So they walk up to the bar and talk with the bartender. For next few minutes they go on about Welsh Rabbit. You can have the Welsh rabbit with tomatoes and it's called a blushing bunny. At this point I assumed I was going to actually see what the dish looks like. I mean, they just gave us the run down on the darn thing and I don't even get to see what it looks like! The problem with that is this would have been a perfect time for more character development and some dialog about what their plan of action is, but instead we get nothing and that's the movie really. Here's a moment to use the basics of what makes a good horror movie. Build up a relationship with these characters and then build tension.
Instead, from here on out it just gets worse. I think they spent all of their budget on the location and winged it from here because it feels like a different movie once they get to the haunted castle. Bad acting, more royalty free music and the same sound effect used every time something remotely scary happens. Here they have this great location and they do nothing with it. I found myself pausing the movie near the end because I couldn't believe 80 plus minutes went by. I thought it was near the 45 minute mark. Well the movie ends and that's the best part. Overall the English actors do a pretty good job. The American actors range from decent to horrendous. At least in the credits they could have shown us what the heck Welsh rabbit is.