Worst theatrical horror movie of 2013

Rating: 3/10 (10 December 2013)

If you asked your local theater for tickets to the new James Wan directed, Patrick Wilson horror movie, I hope they directed you to The Conjuring. Otherwise, you went to see this completely unoriginal, poorly acted, unintentionally funny mess. James Wan had clearly stretched himself thin with two similarly plotted movies in the same year. Besides the usual haunted house clichés: dolls, Victorians, pianos; and the hallmarks of the bad horror movie (crashingly loud noises where genuine scares should be), this script outright rips off elements of The Shining, Sleepaway Camp and Amityville Horror. And because it is a sequel, it can't even claim to have an original idea of its own. The staging of a climactic scene is so similar to The Shining, I was surprised Patrick Wilson did not do the "Here's Johnny!" line. In the last minute, Wan even manages a final rip off by using the exact ghost sound effect from Ju-On/The Grudge. Patrick Wilson is typically neither good nor bad, but he's well beyond his range here. And Danielle Bisutti, as the villainess, is doing an impression of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest without the fun factor. That's when she's allowed to speak, and not shriek into an echo chamber for one of the movie's many loud jump scares. I have seen virtually every theatrical or direct to video horror movie this year, except The Last Exorcism 2 and Carrie. Either one of them could be worse than this, but I doubt it. The current 6.9 rating astounds me, since so few horror movies ever get above a 6. This is not the one to break that mold.