Glad I Never Bothered....

Rating: 4/10 (15 August 2010)

When this film came out...I thought it might be good..worth seeing at some point..in the theater. I am glad I never wasted my time and money to do so then. It starts off boring..stays boring..and does little to make you want to watch it until the end. It did not take long to realize the main characters were dead..and did not understand what had happened to them. The kids...the boy..is wimpy..and the girl is rather mean and hateful. No wonder..with a mother who seems to have major mood swings at the drop of a hat. The husband...a war hero of sorts..comes home..suddenly..out of the fog...unsure of how he got there...and with the idea the war is still being fought...so he must go back and leave his family again. To live in that gloomy house..surrounded by fog..no wonder he wants to leave. The caretakers of the place...they all seem to know SOMETHING...but none say a word...why? The housekeeper simply does the bidding of the woman..with a grim look on her face..as if she doesn't approve. Why doesn't she speak up? The kids are supposedly sensitive to light...so everything is kept dark..windows covered...she thinks the sunlight will kill them...how does she know that? Who told her? A doctor..? Or is it part of her delusions? She seems very uptight and almost manic at times..ranting and raving...which would have been the perfect time for someone to tell her the truth. Apparently..her husband was killed in the war...and she lost her mind because of it...killed her children and the people who worked for her...and then herself....or she was loony all along and that sent her over the edge? The mansion sits far from anything...it seems...no one comes...no one we see anyway...but when the curtains disappear...we know someone or something has taken them down...ghosts we are thinking..? Someone trying to kill her children...the woman is thinking. I never did get the idea of why the woman kept all the keys to everything. Every room had to be kept locked...another of her delusions? If she was so fearful of the place...why didn't she gather her children and leave? Fog or no fog? Any good mother would have gone for help or something of the sort. She gets a gun and attempts to shoot...another hint at what she might have done at one time to the living? I wanted to like this film...and I am not a big Nicole Kidman fan at all..but after I figured out the plot..it was no longer interesting. They called the unseen people "The intruders"...and it scares the children. Who would scare children like that? If they have to spend eternity being afraid because of things their mother did..it seems wrong. The séance scene finally lets you in on what is going on...duh...we knew that already. What people would hold a séance to find out of the place was truly haunted before they decided to buy it? Weird. The place will continue to stay empty..because as Nicole Kidman says in the end "no one can make us leave this house". It reminded me of another haunted house type story.."Rose Red" by Stephen King...which made a much better movie. Watch that instead...I think you will enjoy it a lot more.