Haunt (2013)

Haunt - Trailer 

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

(Didn't Like It) 

Netflix Synopsis: When a teen moves into a new house with his family and takes up with the girl next door, their adolescent passions unlock an alternate universe.

The Peeps:  Mac Carter (director); Andrew Barrer (writer); Harrison Gilbertson, Liana Liberato, Jacki Weaver

Quick Run Down:  Unoriginal, Repetitive

Worth the Watch:  Skip it.

Mother Morello (Weaver)

Janet and Franklin Morello are doctors - pediatrician and dentist, respectively.  They have moved with their 3 kids and are planning to set up private practices in their new home as a kind of one stop doctor shop for local children.  But tragedy supersedes ambition when the couple's only son dies in a car wreck.  Then, their youngest girl drowns.  Then, their oldest girl hangs herself.  Who wants to visit a children's doctor that can't keep her own kids alive, Janet asks.  And finally, Franklin - while using an EVP... tafn (electronic voice phenomena... that appeared from nowhere) machine to try and contact his dead kids - takes a mysterious tumble and dies as well, leaving all but mother Morello lifeless and in the ground.  It is a sudden rash of deaths that inspires the town to make up stories to satisfy unanswerable questions.  Thus surfaces 'The Morello Curse' - the idea that the house the family lived in is haunted.  Jump forward some unknown length of time and the Asher family - mother, father, 2 girls, and a boy - are moving into said house. Not long after getting settled, Evan, the boy, meets his neighbor Samantha by accident, and they fall for each other.  Samantha's home life is a mess, and she seeks safety and shelter in the Asher home, specifically Evan's arms. That safety is short lived, though, because the two unleash something threatening when they find Franklin's EVP machine and test it out themselves.  Now, there's evil lurking in the shadows, and it's dead gray eyes are watching Sam and Evan's every move!

Evan and Sam are sitting in a tree...

IFC Midnight is just handing out movies these days.  Of the last 7 films I've reviewed (not including this one), 4 were distributed by the group - see: Grabbers, The Tortured, The Den, Alien Abduction -  and this is a good thing.  I'm behind any company that actively pushes the horror genre, especially when that company is gathering/releasing good stuff.  The Midnight films I've reviewed so far have all had good acting, usually great pictures, and decent directing.  What they've lacked in has been script, but that's as much a genre downfall as it is a complaint.  Unfortunately, even great athletes have bad games, and Haunt is a stinker for Midnight.  It's got the picture, but that's pretty much the only thing going for it.  The acting is held by Gilbertson (Evan) and Weaver (Janet Morello) only, Liberato (Sam) being mediocre and the rest barely noteworthy.  (Ione Skye, the Asher mom and most recognizable face in the flick, not only does a bad job but has terrible make up too.)  The tension that's created is numbed down by repetition, and the script just isn't there.  The story is rote; the scares are redundant; and there are moments where it feels like Carter (the director) just threw in a 'scare' so the movie would have something to DO.  Otherwise, the whole thing would have been stagnant.  This is really disappointing too because the opening scene of the movie is well done, with building tension, strong acting, and an intriguing scare.  It's all downhill from there, though.  The only thing that remains in tact through the rest of the movie is the editing, which is really good and helps maintain some of the tension that the flick so badly wants to have.  There are some other things that irked me - abruptness being a big one - but there's no point in being overly negative.  If you decide not to take my advice on this one, you'll probably notice right away what I'm talking about.

So, if you want to watch a supernatural horror flick that repeatedly uses unoriginal scare tactics and has a regurgitated story, take a look at Haunt.  You're not missing anything if you don't, but that's never stopped anyone.  Check it out - it's on Netflix!

The most pointless part of the film.

something something "'ah, shucks'" something something