Extremely disappointing and over-blown.

Rating: 3/10 (4 November 2010)

What a huge disappointment. There I was, expecting a scary film which would stay with me so that, when lying in bed, I'd ensure my feet are under the duvet and worry about 'bumps in the night'.
How could it fail? It's a simple idea, a haunting recorded on camera. What could go wrong?
Well, for starters, it had the feel of an over-produced amateur effort, maybe by a film school student. Secondly, Katie Featherston is a terrible actress, completely unable to convey any sense of empathy with her character and I wouldn't be surprised if she was reading her lines from the underside of cups, etc, in a subtle effort to hide the fact she couldn't remember them. And, in a film which only features 2 people (the parapsy is hardly in it) that is a real problem - there's no hiding for her. Thirdly, they obviously shot too high. A plain, old fashioned haunting was called for. All this 'demon' stuff was pointless and tacky. Fourthly, in dealing with a film about bumps in the night SUBTLETY is called for. It's all about the imagination doing the work. THe crescendo through the film is OK, but the final scene just wasn't scary, I'd had enough by then. Fifthly, WAS the end supposed to be scary? He runs downstairs into the pitch black but she does away with him without a fight? . And 'She's still missing'. Right. And that's immediately before the screen telling us it's all fictitious. Tacky, clichéd and boring. We know know she killed him with a knife, right? So THANK GOODNESS she didn't rip his face off with her teeth, or pull his heart of of his chest with her hand, etc etc, all those other things that would have been EVEN WORSE...
And, while I think about it, what the hell is that about the powder and what looked to me at least to be hoof-marks?! As if the 'demon' is just invisible, but otherwise has a physical presence?! It's the kind of story a child would come up with.
Which is not to say that the plot worked anyway. In a film where the answer is staring the participants in the face - the Church - the whole subject of exorcism is all but ignored. Instead they draft in a parapsy who is of no use and, even more sadly, the only other person who could help them is away. Right. The only other person. There's no one else, is there? A Priest? Or just look in the phone book? Equally, the protagonists persist in doing things which are contrary to common sense but necessary to drive the story forward.
So disappointing.