Glad to see an R rated film do so well, but not sure why it is

Rating: 6/10 (28 July 2013)

I love horror films and I think a true horror film should be rated R. Unfortunately, over the years, the makers of films have tried their hardest to make everything they can into a PG-13 film, for reasons I cannot quite explain. As if there are that many 13 to 16 year old's whose parents will not take them to an R rated film to doom a good film to failure without them. Well this film is proving that they are not needed! For that I salute this movie and wish for its continued success. However, at the same time I am baffled as to why it is exactly doing so well. I went to this film and I have to say about the only haunted house cliché they were missing in this film was a cat scare. I was bored for a lot of this film to be quite honest. This film had some interesting story aspects and it also picked up near the end, but I just do not see what the fuss is about.
The story has a couple moving into a new house with their five daughters. Meanwhile, we are introduced to another couple who investigate paranormal activities. The family who moved into the new house seem to be coming under attack by a spirit and soon the paths will cross as the ones who investigate the paranormal come to the aid of the family. Things become dire when the mother of the family begins to act oddly and the strange presence that is tormenting the family finds its way into the home of the couple who investigate the strange happenings.
The acting is fairly decent which helped the film out immensely. As I said, I was getting bored here and there and it was only the acting that kept me awake. The scares were the typical loud noises in the night and at times I was reminded of various other haunting films such as Poltergeist, Amityville and a myriad of others. The film switches a bit in tone and turns into more of an exorcism movie, but that has been done before too in Amityville II: The Possession.
I do not want to give the impression that the film was bad, just a movie I have seen on more than one occasion. I find it strange that people are calling it original. It had good acting though and there were aspects of the story I enjoyed and thought interesting. To often though I felt that they used the book of haunted house clichés and were crossing off the ones they used. Like I said, I think they crossed off everyone, but were not able to cross off "Open door and cat jumps out."