very disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (14 November 2008)

What a lot of corny clichés: creepy house, over the top creepy music, strange noises, banging doors and windows, inanimate objects moving by themselves, a dark cave and crashing waves, strange noises in the garden late at night, reaching into cupboards to reveal strange bundles, a mad old woman. Yes creepy houses can be scary - think of 'The Shining' with Jack Nicolson, and the sense of menace without all the trickery of this film. The hideous figures in 'Pan's Labyrinth was really scary but hideous masks here were sick rather than scary. Yes there were the shocks that made you react physically but they were so contrived. Yes the female actor was terrific but all the other characters were hammy or stilted. What about the farce of the medium? The husband particularly had a nothing role. The music at the end was corny too. Not a success for me at all.