At least it's a nice house

DiscoViolento

A group of people with psychic powers go to wake up a so-called "dead cell", a haunted house, led by a somewhat obsessed teacher. Yes, the plot sounded promising and so did the fact that it was a Stephen King screenplay. Unfortunately, that didn't help this time.

The biggest problem is the characters. The only one that really clicked was Emery; a sloppy and selfish man who can see things that has happened in the past (usually not that pleasant). While he is not the most likable of people, he is nicely developed and acted. Other characters are either not well established before it kicks off or get too little screen time to actually make an impact. Thus, there is no "anchor" that keeps our interest, and in the end, I found myself thinking that I couldn't care less if they died or not.

The whole question "can a house become mad if the people living in it are?" reminded me a lot of "house of usher" by Edgar A. Poe. I must say that I liked that aspect of this story. It's intriguing and a good ground for a scare. However, it becomes less scary when being told in a Tales from the Crypt-version. While I appreciate that too, the two just don't go together, and unfortunately, the puppets ruin the atmosphere big time. Watching it, I almost felt like Craig R Baxley did it on purpose. He took away the ghost story and brought forward the ghosts. Not too scary ghosts.

But in the end, I don't think it would have made any difference.

240 minutes is a long time for character development, and not succeeding in that area is somewhat of a merit, I suppose. Not even a few good scares could have saved this movie when it lacks in this area so brutally.

The three stars is for the rooms of this house, which are quite nice. But unless you're into interior design, don't waste your time.

score 3/10

DiscoViolento 27 December 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1787645/