A Predictable, Overused Concept

Rating: 4/10 (28 October 2012)

The premise of this film and story is about a ghost with a score to settle, terrorizing all those who enter a Gothic, uninhabited mansion separated from the town by a lake where the tides cut it off from escaping from it at night. This is very much like the concept of the remote hotel located in the snow covered mountains, cut off from civilization by snowed in roads in "The Shining". Except Stephen King is a master writer and a master of horror story telling, which is much better than this film or story. This film, set in the early 1900's, even with it's macabre and evil setting, backed by grey skies and even greyer landscape, is nothing more than "bump in the night" predictability layered through-out the film. The expectation that the lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe) sent to this home to sift through papers left by the dead occupant to settle a last will and testament, is going to encounter some scary stuff is just what it is; some run of the mill scary stuff one can see coming a mile away. The horror is overt and placating. The mystery is missing. It's expected. The plot line is thin. A long dead woman whose son had tragically died in a sunken vehicle and been left at the bottom of a marsh, meandered through the dark hallways of the house and cemetery outside to threaten anybody in its path. As the story progresses, until the dead son is retrieved from the bottom of the marsh, the spirit cannot rest. The plot finally settles in on the lawyer attempting to accomplish finding the dead son, as a result of some very astute detective work, as one would expect, in establishing exactly what the problem was. Again, its predictable, its too long, and if you want a good film with this imitated concept, watch The Shining. Its a better bet for the money, and surely will scare the hell out of you.