6/10 Stars
Rated NR for no particular reason
Well one things for sure the spirit of old Nickelodeon shows Are You Afraid Of The Dark and Goosebumps are alive and well in this movie . And thats not a bad thing, finding a family friendly horror movie today is like finding a ten dollar bill in the jacket you haven't worn in a year. While I believe the the writers started out with a good concept, they let so many other films influence them it took away from the what could have been a very good movie. The movie is certainly is carried by the two leads Abigail Breslin and Stephen McHattie. Directed by my home town boy Vincenzo Natali known for 1997's Cube among others. I get what he was trying to do he just took to long to get there. Running at 97 minutes it seemed it could have been trimmed down to 80 and would have told a better story.
****May Contain Spoilers****
The Good:
Great concept a view through the eyes of the ghost.
The acting lead by Abigail Breslin and Stephen McHattie.
Family friendly, no nudity/sex and very little mild swearing.
A lower budget film that doesn't let it stop it
The Bad:
The "Groundhog Day" opening act
Pale Man's batcave like labyrinth. Really was this house built on an abandoned mine?
Runtime about 15 minutes or so too long.
We start the film meeting a family that includes Mom and Dad little brother Robbie and teenager Lisa we are also introduced to Robbies imaginary friend Edgar that is living the same day in 1985(the day before Lisa's 16th birthday) over and over again. Daughter Lisa comes to realize this but can't get her family to understand. So we get to watch the same shots over and over again till we are almost sick of it. Lisa starts to hear voices coming from different parts of the house and we get follow along while she investigates. We learn that her family is actually dead and living in some kind of limbo that seems to be controlled by the "pale man". Thier home is surrounded by a fog that no matter how hard you try to leave you end up back at the house. Lisa starts communicating with a present day teenageer Olivia and taking posession of her at times. Though notes and signs left for one another Lisa finds that the pale man is actually a serial killer that lived in the house. Killing young girls for about 20 years before dieing there. After which he had taken possession of Lisa and Robbie's father and killed her family. Now he has taken control of Olivia's dad with plans to do it all again. Though the girls investigation we met the ghost of Frances Nichols one of the first victims of the pale man. As the film goes into the "chase" we find out that the reason they can communicate is if you hold something that belongs to the departed you can connect with them. The ghost can also become self-aware when this is done. As the chase between Lisa trying to save Oliva's family and free her own family from this limbo it is learned that Edgar is actually the pale man who started down his killing road by dispatching his own family. Lisa's family after being helped by Oliva and Lisa "wake up" and are allowed to leave the house and go into the light. Lisa stays behind to save the current residence of her old home. After finding the killers lair earlier when we met Frances, Lisa returns and gathers up all of his trophy's so she can call on the victims to help her. After confronting the pale man dispatching him with the help of his victims and saving Olivia's family, Lisa is reunited with her family on her 16th birthday and the fog is lifted presumably in haven.
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