more assets than liabilities, a fun film

Rating: 7/10 (26 February 2008)

First, I'll try a synopsis of this movie. That isn't easy, because there are basically three points of view throughout. A writer takes a job overseeing a desolate hotel, which for some reason is completely isolated during the winter, with no one around. He, his beautiful wife, and his troubled young son are all alone in a haunted hotel. The people who leave him there seem to know it is haunted, too. The writer, we learn later, is trouble, too. The film is purposely ambiguous as to whether he arrived deranged, or whether the ghosts he meets drive him to insanity. Some will like the chilling scenes. It is a fun movie, and it is scary. Others will not like some of the ambiguity, nor the fact that the writer seems to go crazy all at once. However, a second look shows that he may not have come unhinged in one second. The tell tale scene is when his wife finds part of his manuscript to see what he has written. It denotes that he has been crazy for some time. The young son is trouble, but "gifted", with some ability to sense hauntings. For some reason, this makes him a sort of target. Why? Probably more for effect than actual cause. To accept the premise of the movie, you need to accept the premise that the ghosts are the result of some actual intelligence, and that this intelligence is some evil of the usual Hollywood undying evil sort. A lot of interesting scenes make this movie enjoyable enough. It has mixed reviews, but overall, it has many more assets than liabilities.