Delightfully frightening

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2016)

I rarely watch horror movies, but at the insistence of a friend, I agreed to go to this one. And believe me, at the end of the movie, I was really surprised and intrigued how this movie amazingly captured my breath. This movie sends your central nervous system to a spin with its innumerable terrorizing moments. The movie follows a common plot that most horror films do: a haunted house that is like 100 years old, demonical possession of a kid followed by oppression, havoc, destruction integrated with creaky staircases, darkness, flooded basements, and swirling furnitures. Just when you thought that you can anticipate the next sequence in the movie, you're proved terribly wrong. Because the direction team have done such a admirable job in the pacing of the plot that not in one moment the audience find themselves disengaged from the movie. They create the build-up, create inexhaustible anxiousness about it, then kill it and then give you a frightful shock when you are least expecting it. That is the real beauty of this movie: the nerve frizzling surprises. The story is set in England where a single disillusioned mother with 4 kids live in a house haunted by a previous owner who is now a ghost refusing to leave the house. The demon creates mayhem in the house diabolically torturing the family and creating ruckus at the most inopportune moments. The ghost takes on little daughter, Janet, 11, and uses her as his controller to channelize his wrath over the family. Real life ghost hunters are called upon to help the family and detect the root cause of this evil. But they are at their wit's end, and are unable to improve the family's situation. Finding themselves going under personal risk, they begin to ponder if it's all a hoax and nothing but a dramatical performance by the little girl, in order to seek attention from the society. The atmosphere gets creepier and creepier and just when you thought the number of shocks is just done, you are attacked with an another ghastly attack. You will literally hear your hearts beating out of your ears. However, given all the good points, the story is bit of a letdown. There will be no answers for your "why is this happening" or what is the reason. There is no explanation, the direction has relied on the no of jump-outs it gives to the audience. It is also not clear the motive of the ghost which is vaguely depicted. The director knows how to manipulate the pulse and breath of the audience and his successful tactics in making the audience jump has helped the disguise an otherwise pretty imprecise and hazy story. Overall, for a delightful frightening experience, you might try your money on this movie. Worth a watch. People who get frightened easily are asked not to watch it.