What could have been...

Rating: 3/10 (27 March 2013)

This has the same thing wrong with it that a lot of bad horror does. It tries to hard to be scary. Endless, cheap jump scares. Things redone from other films 100 times before that used to be scary but are now just warn out. And let's not forget a poorly made CGI bad guy. Yahoo!
I wish these main stream horror directors would just say screw you to being scary and actually try to tell a good story. But no, we got to add more run of the mill jump scares to this sucker.
Also, a scene rips off the game Fatal Frame.
There is also a lot of plot holes. The ghost for example is clearly a good one at the start of the film. It protected and cared for the two kids for five years straight and it killed one guy, a man that was about to kill them. Not actually evil there. But then she goes evil because...? Well the film suggests that she's jealous of the new parents. But if that's the case, why does she wait so long to strike? Her power seems endless at the end of the film. It would of been nice if she had a motive because you can't simply say she's evil due to her literally saving the kids lives. Oh, and did I mention she spends most of the film trying to find her lost baby only to destroy the things bones? Why? Beats me. It's just random.
The Annabel character also makes no sense. Yes, I get it, she doesn't want to be a mother, but why does she have to act so distant and mean towards the kids? Just cause you don't want to be a mother doesn't mean you should randomly act like a dick towards some kids you just met. She has no reason to act this way. Sure, she comes to care for them by the end(for unclear reasons) but by then I, the viewer, already see her as a dick.
There are only two good things about this. Isabelle Nélisse acting was very impressive with how she moved and acted like an animal. It was so off, but interesting. And the dream scene, which is wonderfully over stylized.
This could have been so, SO much better as the idea of two kids being raised in the wild and then having to live a normal life can be made into such an interesting story. Read The Room to see what can be done with an idea like this. Instead, screw that original and thought provoking idea, let's slap some random scary ghost in it! BOO!
3 out of 10. Don't bother.