Good but don't trust the tin

buckersmail

score 7/10

Please let me begin by stating that I love the original movie; it is easily among my most favourite ever movies. For this reason, I decided to view this remake as it's own movie, trying not to compare it to the original. Being a fan of paranormal movies, and seeing the trailer for this movie, I had hoped that I was in store for a scarefest. By the time that the credits were rolling, I had realised that what I had seen was something quite different to what was advertised.

The trailer shows that this is a very scary movie whereas, however desensitised I may be to the majority of scary movies, I feel that it is a lot less scary than it could have been. Please do not get me wrong, a good portion of the movie was scary, tension-building or/and interesting but then far too much of the movie was comical. For me, the movie felt almost like a ramped-up Ghostbusters.

This doesn't mean to say that the movie was not entertaining, I was very entertained and I felt that the movie was good, just not necessarily what was advertised.

I thought Sam Rockwell was largely mis- cast as the father of the family and felt that his role needed a much more commanding performance. It would have been interesting to see somebody like Christian Bale in that role. Rosemarie DeWitt did well as the mother of the family. Kennedi Clements performance was excellent and beyond her years as Madison and Kyle Catlett possibly shone as the star of the cast with his showing in the part of Griffin. Saxon Sharbino was just annoying and unnecessary as the elder daughter.

I loved the effects that were used as nothing looked too unbelievable.

Overall, this is a solid movie with a good script but expect to chuckle more than jump.

buckersmail 24 May 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3244269/