Haunt

Plot synopsis:
A distraught man, Frank, tries to speak to his dead children in the afterlife by using an EVP box; soon thereafter, he is mysteriously possessed by a ghost, which then apparently causes him to kill himself.
After this incident, a woman who will come to be known to the viewer as Dr. Morello begins narrating about her family and how they were murdered one by one by an unknown force. When Evan Asher (Harrison Gilbertson) and his family move into the old Morello house some years later, they are largely unaware that it has a history of death and grief. Soon after their arrival Evan begins to experience paranormal activity and enlists his neighbor Sam (Liana Liberato) to help uncover what is going on. (Samantha herself suffers in her own home at the hands of her abusive, drunken father; her mother's whereabouts are left unrevealed to the viewer until later into the film and she is believed to have abandoned the family.)
As the two teens spend more and more time with each other, they begin to fall in love and in the course of exploring the house, find the same EVP box from before. Not really expecting anything to actually happen, they use it to speak with the dead and it starts working. The ghosts continue haunting the two teens as well as psychically contacting the youngest child (leaving the parents unaware of the whole situation), and at the urging of Dr. Morello, whom they deduce might know something about the hauntings, the frightened Evan and Sam decide to burn the box and the belongings of the previous owners. They also seal the small room in their attic bedroom where the box was found. However, these actions fail to work as hoped and the ghost of a woman haunts them that night and locks the door.
It is then revealed to Sam in a psychic vision that the ghost is the vengeful "she" fearfully referred to repeatedly throughout the course of the movie by the other spirits, and who is the main antagonist of the film. Frank -Mr. Morello -had an affair with a woman who was his neighbor and his wife's patient (her name is never revealed to the viewer), who gave birth to a daughter -Samantha herself. Frank's wife, who is a doctor, finds out about the affair and brutally kills the woman while the weak-willed Frank stands by and watches while holding the daughter he sired. The woman is then buried in a small room in the attic, where Evan is staying now. Sam is then possessed by her spirit who in turn kills Evan by bludgeoning him with a hammer saying "You shouldn't have burned the box, you shouldn't have closed the room." Sam is caught by Evan's father when she tries to open the wooden plank in the floor under which the woman's body is buried, calling out "Mommy" the whole time; she is arrested and taken away by the cops. The movie ends with the voice of Dr. Morello wondering if Evan will haunt that house forever like she believes the members of her family will.

Tags: murder

Review:
Nothing really special here, a story about a haunted house, two characters that weren't quite exploited enough, scares that came so late and soft, a twist that didn't manage to stand tall.It wanted to be something, you can clearly see it tried, but somewhere, it failed, somewhere along the plot development, when they tried to make it more than it could be.
In the end it is a movie about a haunted house, so don't get your hopes too high, cause originality is something too hard to achieve, working around with just 2 actors make the viewer feel deserted, and scares that won't come when they suppose to, leave him even more alone.Not so many reasons to recommend this one: yes, average horror at its best, a somewhat effort put into it, but still, it falls flat.
An introverted teen (Harrison Gilbertson) connects with his new neighbor (Liana Liberato), and together the couple begins to explore the haunted house that his family has unknowingly just purchased.There are some things worth liking about this film.
that was it?", REALLY fast.It starts with typical "family moves into a haunted house" bit but it feels like movie tries to copy clichés only and is happy not following through different sub-plots.
but then you'd be wrong since movie doesn't do anything with that setting, doesn't progress it at all.It's like the director had a list of horror cliché's to add and that was it.Also, this movie throws in so many jump "scares" that you will soon start predicting the next jump.
Scary and frightening like a haunted house movie (the movie's self-aware opening narration describes itself as a ghost story) ought to be, its intensity is too much for PG-13 but lacks the explicit violence and gore typical for R.
No such luck.For a ghost story that's complete with a haunted house, box that allows the living to communicate with the dead, and a pretty decent looking spirit, this is a complete snoozer.
The only survivor, the pediatrician Janet Morello (Jacki Weaver), sells the house to Alan Asher (Brian Wimmer) and his wife Emily (Ione Skye), and they move with their children, the teenagers Evan (Harrison Gilbertson) and Sara (Danielle Chuchran) and the girl Anita (Ella Harris).
"Haunt" is a weak horror movie of haunted house where the only thing new is the apparatus that is a radio to communicate with the dead.
Nevertheless, I found Haunt a very entertaining horror film with an interesting mystery, good scares and credible characters who, at the difference of many films from this genre, generate empathy on the audience.
However, how could there be a horror movie if there was no foolhardy family who was still brave or desperate enough to live in that house despite its sinister past?
It did not take long though that strange things begin to happen to the new tenants.The focus of this story was the middle boy, 18 year-old Evan (Harrison Gilbertson).
While the opening sequences promised another excellent haunted house movie, the ending scenes were simply mediocre, an appalling waste of potential and talented cast.
Don't waste your time watching this movie, it has no interesting characters, so why would you care about them.
The premise of the movie starts good, this is a little ghost story, all the ingredients are there, the house, the tragedy and...
the communication device, in this case, a EVP Box from the sixties.The 2 leads are well developed and although they don't display good acting skills, it is clear that they have chemistry together and that alone make up for all the script plot holes.The rest of the cast flows in development of their roles through the movie but in the last act they suddenly disappear from screen for no other reason than to focus on the two leads, this results in a big miss because we suddenly stop seeing them and that empty space turns the whole concept upside down, degrading what was well done in the first acts.The movie tries to tie the story together from pieces to puzzle to big picture with the revelation right at the ending.Hopefully it works, for the majority of the movie, sadly, the ending is incredible anti climatic.I can see the director trying a different thing pretending to be original but the result came out incredible wrong, not only ruins the movie, it doesn't explain in any meaningful way anything except a few loose ends..In fact the final declarations sounds more like "yes we didn't knew what to do anymore so we finish the movie like this..
There are movies that get saved by the ending and left the viewers at least with a satisfactory conclusion, then there are movies that are dull through and through, but the worst of their kind are movies like this one, with an nice premise, good development and stupid ending, that is unforgivable because it gives you a weird feeling of bad taste on your mouth, a feeling of being cheated.Do not waste your time, it's really not worth it as there are much better movies out there..
i gave this a 6 outta ten because the cinematography was good, the ghost was actually pretty terrifying as movie spirits go, jacki weaver was eerie and haunting in her role as the vengeful wife and grieving mother, and the ending kinda surprised me.
For me the opening part of the movie was very decent ,there one decent creepy moments , near the start but as the movies goes onI was so bored by it , it never got me back into it , when those scare scenes , were so bad, I actually thought they were funny.I thing seeing the ghost so early on and far to many times , that the creepy factor away, Far too boring and far to scarce less and a very predicable endingThe acting was really good , the egoist effects were not at all, I kind of find the ghost a bit cute lol , i am kidding I am going to give 4/10.
Format: Amazon Video Language: English Released: 2014Director: Mac CarterStarring: Jacki Weaver, Liana Liberato, Harrison GilbertsonHaunt opens with a bereaved Franklin Morello (Carl Hadra), who while endeavoring to contact his dead family using an EVP device, gets murdered by a spirit hand.As an opening it's rather good; setting a scene of vengeful spirits, emotional regrets and mysteries and generally propagating so many questions that you want to hang on to the end to see them answered.Regrettably that's where it seems Mac Carter runs out of story.
Harrison Gilbertson however, is just appalling; he is unconvincing, uncaring and looks bored and detached from the story throughout the production, which is exactly how I felt by the time the all too predictable 'twist' was played out.There is some good in the film, if you can stick with it long enough to spot it, yet with every good piece there is a downside.
For example; when the spirits turn up (and they do so alarmingly often) they look suitably unnerving and sinister, yet from the opening titles the editing and shot set up makes it obvious when they're coming; now in a film that relies on its 'jump' scares that makes the whole thing redundant - the appearance of ghoulies and ghosties is supposed to be a surprise!Another example of this good/bad content is the sound editing (Mandell Winter is credited as Sound Editor).
Evan Asher (Harrison Gilbertson) and Sam (Liana Liberato) just don't look bothered half the time (actually Evan doesn't seem bothered any of the time) and this means the viewer is not really bothered either.While I can pick out the Sound Editing, CGI/SFX and some of the cinematography for praise the rest, acting editing etc., kind of defeats the purpose of a film.
The sound and effects should be used to create a visual whole that sucks the viewer in and makes them care about the characters and what is happening, not be picked out and used as examples of good bits in a mediocre film.
Together, and with the help of a troubled young girl with her own secret ties to the house, they explore the mysteries and history of this device and use it to try to overcome the shadows of the supernatural world that threaten their lives.At least, that's what it should have been.Instead, we have an obvious ghost, no real strong scares, and the odd existence of this ghost-machine that is just assumed and never questioned, make this story disjointed and pieced-together at best.It would be interesting to see what the movie could have been without the scatterbrained attempt to stitch it together.
As a commentator has noted, HAUNT is one boring haunted house movie; a dark, muddled, cookie cutter viewing experience about a house haunted by evil spirits that seems to mine American HORROR STORY for inspiration without ever doing anything by itself.
It's a tiresome film, with a set-up no different from dozens of other movies, and yet it seems to think it's telling some kind of story worth telling.The narrative centres around the usual annoying American teenage characters who move into a house with a dark history.
It has a mediocre storyline and some fairly cheap scare tricks going on.A family has moved into a new house where mysterious things are going one.
I guess that it is an easy way to glance past perhaps a lack of great effects or make-up?The acting in "Haunt" was okay, although the cast were extremely limited by the script and the storyline."Haunt" did have potential to be a good horror movie, but director Mac Carter couldn't bring the ship safely into harbor, so to speak.All in all, an average movie experience, but a weak horror experience.
A sensible teenage boy befriends a troubled young lady and together they try to communicate with the previous deceased occupants who died under mysterious circumstances.To director Mac Carter's credit Haunt has one of the most chilling ghost story openings put to screen, in addition he offers jump scare after jump scare, which never grows old thanks to some solid acting, music, sound design and eerie effects.
Sadly, Danielle Chuchran's screen time is limited as she steals every scene as to dose the younger sister played by Ella Harris, possibly to avoid story comparisons to the aforementioned and many other similar horrors.Even though you can see the twist coming a mile away, reminiscent of Stir of Echoes it's a respectably old-school ghost chiller that's wonderfully put together with scary visuals and a great narcissistic ending.There could have been more focus around the photos in the shed and little more about the EVP box history but the ambiguity works.
I almost get the feeling this is part of a further story arc the way its played out.Ever had a cream bun just when you fancied one well this movie is kinda like that...its not high cuisine but it is perfect if you are looking for exactly this kind of film.
We are getting more PG-13 horror, and rated R ones that are worse than a PG-13, like this one and The Conjuring or should we called them The Lame Ones?I think its people that actually believe in ghosts that actually enjoy these.
The film opens with kind of a creepy, promising narrative given by the actress (Jackie Weaver) who played the daughter in All in the Family whose haggard appearance is perhaps the most frightening aspect of the movie.
Two jump scares and a cheap CGI character aren't enough to hold this movie up, and by the time you get to the end, nobody's motivations make any sense, living or dead, and are inconsistent to say the least.
Fairly standard haunted house thriller that owes a great deal to THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and practically every other Stephen King ghost story in this rather boring horror flick about a family (knowingly!) moving into a house whose previous tenants were killed and a mysterious neighbor teen (Liberato) who infiltrates their environs as well.
Like the atmosphere of the room, how it came across that something wasn't right...but the movie never continued and the intensity and foreboding evil essence..if they had focused on that angle and fuelled it by the attic that had a small door and behind that door was some hidden rooms , that held the center of the movie, instead the attic seemed fine and OK the sleep in but the little door became the focus of the storyline, and not even the little room was giving a history about it, and the what i would call The Spirit Phone used to call the 'other side' ...also gave us no history of meaning, Yhe movie failed in parts which unfortunately shrouded the film as vague and ungiving ..where if the writers gave us a bit more depth, on keeping the attic a room that made u feel uncomfortable ,,and the strange little door ..that behind was a small little room, with a dark cold place that gave us a sense of fear, as parts of its past and what went on in there, and was it that way only because of some strange box..
Literally, this was their only fright mechanism.Then it drags on like some poor ghost of a butler lugging chains around a deserted mansion - at least you know you could sit down and have a smoke with him and strike up an interesting chat.And I can't detail the end without ticking the spoiler box, but let me say two things:* The TV survived, even though I had an immediate urge to kick it in* Straight after this we watched the Lego Movie...
A new family moves into the house which basically mirrors the old one.The film then centers on the oldest son Evan (Harrison Gilbertson) and his newly acquired playmate and seer Samantha (Liana Liberato) to the unfortunate exclusion of everyone else.
It is the two teens leads, Evan Played by Harrison Gilbertson, and the neighbor girl he befriends, Sam played by Liana Liberato who carry the story; Sam knows the history of the house, and the folks who lived there before.
Just written that way, they had to be out of the picture for the duration of the last third of the film, only to return at the end.By the first half the nature of the movie shifts as Evan and Sam want to explore the mystery of the spirits, They do so with the aid of a machine that can, "Talk to the Dead" A door was opened with awful consequences ensuing as the young ones fool with things they do not understand.The Machine is beautiful.
The fact that they mainly only used two of the characters didn't help make the movie scarier, in fact it probably took away some of the scare factor since the ghosts seemed to only be haunting Evan and Sam, and possibly the younger girl.Possibly the only unusual thing that happened was that person who started it didn't end up dead.
This movie also posed many questions, most of which did not get answered, e.g. why was the little girl scratching the eyes out of the family photo?All in all a boring horror movie which will more than likely leave you more confused than scared, and not really worth the time to watch it..
I agree with some of the reviewers > stre3xHCCH and > gavin6942 they both had good points, The movie start really interesting in terms of narrative and plot, mysterious enough and creepy, but end in mediocrity.All starts when a family the Morello's moves in a classic beautiful house for a new beginning, full of hope with a great business prospective, but that short lived as all ends in tragedy, when their young children all teens and their father die of violent death in the house (and out)..Anyway time has passed and a new family whose the house is sold to, moves in and they also have three teen children, one of them Evan, the quiet one, meets this young girl in the woods one night going for a walk, named Sam, whose we don't really know or learn anything about her, except she has a violent father and until the end, we get just a glimpse, and not enough to satisfy the building up of the beginning of the story, imho.
When Evan and Sam found this radio and mess about, then things begin to manifest,and not in a good way, which would usually mean that the fun begins, but I felt like it was just rushed and not give the time to explore why and what had really happened in the house to all those people.
They make contact with the ghosts of the murdered children, but unfortunately they are not alone as an evil force starts making it's intentions known and it's not long before Evan and Sam are fighting for their lives.From reading about the film and viewing the trailer, Haunt looks to be a good, very creepy supernatural horror.
Don't get me wrong - it's not a horrendous movie but it could have been so much better as it definitely had the ingredients to make it a good film.The main thing where it falls down for me is that there are too many unanswered questions and plot holes.
It is a film you do have to pay attention to, but you still have to do some searching to try and find the answers to the questions that the film poses.The acting is pretty decent and there are a few nice creepy moments, but other than that Haunt is really just another run-of-the-mill haunted house movie.Not bad but definitely not that good either..
Nothing Special But Why Not. The movie was a typical ghost story that became more predictable as the it went on.
Very good haunted house movie.
One of the best horror movies I have ever watched.