Haunted (Full Screen)
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Movie Reviews of Haunted (Full Screen)
Movie Review: Great Ghost Story....Poor DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
If you appreciate a good ghost story, this fits the bill. It's done in the way only the British can present a ghost story. The thrill is in the tale, not the special effects. A bonus is Kate Beckinsale, who is absolutely irresistable, and a great cameo by Sir John Gielgud. The sad thing is that this DVD is in Fullscreen format only, so you lose the widescreen feel. Also, audio is only in Dolby 2.0. Perhaps this will be rereleased in letterbox and Dolby 5.1 or DTS. Still...a great story though. 3 stars for the film, 0 stars for the DVD.
Movie Review: stange man very strange
Summary: 3 Stars
Not strange in a way that it's bad, but more like wonderfully weird and thought provoking. Eerie at times, and I love the fact that the ghosts seem and act so real until you realise they are not.....I liked it because it was haunting overall, be it rather slow in parts. The acting is ordinary but the movie is good.Movie Review: Good ghost story,but weakly delivered
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm a huge fan of haunted house movies like THE HAUNTING(original),LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE,and ROSE RED and was curious about this one since I never hear about it.Um,as a romantic story with supernatural overtones it's pretty good but it has no creepiness one expects from haunted house stories.Movie Review: haunt
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the film of person who really love the horror movie could be enjoy it. It is good movie and I just really like to collect it, watch it if you like the mystery movie. This is reviewed from video disc.Movie Review: Brideshead Underdeveloped
Summary: 2 Stars
This is an odd movie. It's a fairly basic premise: a wealthy trio of dilettante siblings ask a cynical paranormal investigator (suffering from his own demons) to come and exorcise their beloved childhood nanny, who is plagued by ghosts and careening towards the boobyhatch. When he arrives at Stock Stately Home, things go (literally) bump in the night and suddenly the cynic is confronted with that which he has always decried. And et ceterah.
The first and most commendable thing about "Haunted" is that there's a very fine sense of creeping dread and several elegant scares to be had over the course of the first hour of this movie. Several scenes, not least the opening with its two very competent child actors, jump from the screen and speak to a very high standard.
Unfortunately, for every decent, well-filmed moment in "Haunted", there's a corresponding boring and/or unintentionally funny moment to counteract the sense of terror. Director Lewis Gilbert's lack of consistency is as confusing as it is detrimental to the overall effectiveness of "Haunted" - witness the mounting dread of David's (Aidan Quinn) first night in Edbrook House completely undermined by the appalling special effect sequence of his second night: it looks more like a commercial for some sort of salt-based floor cleanser than anything else. A wonderful set-piece involving a piano playing in an abandoned music room is similarly undone by David's positively gymnastic leap from a car towards the film's end... ...confusingly, "Haunted" seems to be saying, "Look, I know I can be great, but you're just going to have to sit there and put up with mediocre. Boo!!".
The acting here suffers from the same bipolarity of standard: on one hand, Quinn and Kate Beckinsale have a believable chemistry together and neither of them does much wrong - but on the other hand, the grinning foolishness of Alex Lowe and the downright laziness of Brideshead Reunited (Anthony Andrews and a surprisingly underused John Gielgud) make for tiresome, vanilla viewing.
This movie lacks a basic sense of direction. When it's good, it's excellent: when it's bad (and it is more bad than good: the end is tired and predictable, the visual effects laughable even for 1996, and there are LOTS of continuity goofs, in addition to the plain sloppy scenes) it's pretty unwatchable.
Great alternatives include 1989's "The Woman In Black", 1963's "The Innocents" and, of course, "The Others". Each of these movies delivers something in spades that "Haunted" fatally lacks: quality. Avoid this one unless you choose to see it on TV.