If you're looking for a scare, give this film a miss...

Rating: 3/10 (30 July 2014)

Maybe I've just been desensitised through years of watching horror movies but I didn't find this film scary in the slightest, lets just say for a horror film it wasn't particularly horrific. I was also one of those that fell prey to the hundreds of positive reviews and the high IMDb rating, if this movie taught me anything its that perhaps I shouldn't listen to IMDb ratings in future.
At the beginning of the film I felt like this was going to be a great movie and have me on my edge on seat for the duration, the basis for a great story was there it just fell short of my expectations and by the end of the film I was left disappointed and dumbfounded. At first I couldn't understand why I disliked this film so much, but then I realised this film had absolutely no story to it whatsoever. This film seemed to get off on cheap thrills and scares and all of the bits that made you jump were put where you'd expect them to be rather than where you'd least expect them to be, and then when you actually see the malevolent entity in question it in no way lives up to your expectations.
My main qualm with this movie was the fact that this film seemed to jump from story to story. I wasn't counting but there were at least 3 different stories embedded into the main story and each time a new story arose I waited patiently for there to be some sort of conclusion or explanation only to be left waiting. It even angered me slightly the fact that the whole movie was based around this one family and house being haunted and to then not even explain 1) why the family and house were haunted in the first place and 2) who these malevolent entities even were. At one point we see a ghostly girl being hung from a tree and we all expect that to be explained but it never is, we're just supposed to accept the fact that this family and house are haunted and deal with it, as are the family, I think if I was in that sort of situation I'd want some sort of explanation. The paranormal "investigators" didn't seem to do much investigating.
To me, this film is trying to be Insidious and failing miserably. It seems as if James Wan has realised he cant get by on sequels forever so tried to do something different but his something different turned out to be exactly the same as his last movie. I like James Wan's films so I expected a lot from this however my expectations were abruptly dashed and I was left feeling unsatisfied and in need of a horror movie that lived up to its genre. I just hope for better from him in the upcoming Insidious sequel and maybe some explanations in the upcoming The Conjuring spin-off.