First of all, the movie house was packed. I went to the 7:20 showing and there were only a few seats left. As we were leaving we checked out the crowd waiting in line for the 10:00 showing, and the line was out the door. Mostly teenage girls, presumably there to see Daniel Radcliffe post-Harry Potter. This movie is going to do boffo box office.
I would have to describe this as being as close to the Perfect Horror Movie as any I’ve ever seen. It’s a classic haunted house tale, complete with creaky floors, eerie sounds, and things half-moving in shadows out of the corner of your eye. There are plenty of cheap Gotcha! moments, but the movie excels at building up slow tension. Violence and gore were minimal, and there were no gimmicks. Well-acted, well-written, well-scripted, and well-shot.
All in all, I give it an A+.
If you’ve been wanting to go see it, go! You won’t be disappointed. If you’ve been on the fence, it’s definitely worth your time. If you don’t like horror… you’ll hate this one. Definitely not groundbreaking or genre-defining.
There’s nothing any horror movie can show me that I haven’t seen a million times before, I go just for the audience now. The “random-woman-in-the-audience-screaming-before-anything-even-happens” is the highlight of my movie-going experience.
I’ve also seen the play, and have been wondering how different the movie will be. I imagine it must be quite different, and I don’t think the play’s twist would be as effective if you’re not seeing it live.
I won’t spoil the play for those who haven’t seen it, but it has a very small cast and mostly involves the main character telling another character about the tragic, horrifying things that had happened to him years ago. It’s very effective on stage, but wouldn’t really work as a movie – it would basically just be two guys standing around talking. The movie presumably either depicts these events as they’re happening to the main character, or is mostly an extended flashback sequence as the main character tells his story to someone else.
I hope to see it tomorrow. I didn’t realize it’s a remake; did anybody see the 1989 version?
Trivia about that one: the actor who plays the role played by Radcliffe in this one was Adrian Rawlins, who portrayed Radcliffe’s father, James, in the Harry Potter series.
Just saw it yesterday. Defnitely worth seeing in a theater setting for both the movie and the audience experience. My sister and I both screamed like little girls (at separate times, of course) and we weren’t the only ones.
Yeah, I saw it last night and liked it. A really good example of the kind of horror movie that scares through atmosphere, creepiness, and evil ghostly scary stuff, not violence and gore.
I saw it, and I thought it was creepier than the new one. Some of the special effects in the new one were too CGI.
The new one did have some intensely creepy scenes. That rocking chair . . .
Saw it today. They strayed far enough from the book that it was almost a different story. I’d give it a B. I kept comparing it to The Changeling, where the scares fit more neatly into the film. Also del Toro’s The Orphanage.
What impressed me most was how ravaged Radcliffe’s character was – better box this four years after his wife’s death. That made the ending a bit more palatable..
Loved the house, and the setting. One of my recurring dreams is driving on a road like that, with water on both sides. I lived for awhile in Florida when I was really young, and maybe we drove out to the Keys or something. It’s a very vivid dream, almost a memory. Are there roads like that in Florida?
Saw it tonight and mostly enjoyed it. Though it was a little bit predictable and the scope of the mystery was pretty small and generic, but it was still a fun sit. I need a spoiler thread to discuss some of the theories on the outcome.
I went the weekend before last with my brother and boyfriend. I quite enjoyed it, even though I’m not much of a scary movie fan (though as above it was pretty predictable even for me who doesn’t tend to watch this sort of movie, but it did make me jump all the same).
Saw it this week-end with the wife. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great ghost story. I had no idea this was a book / play / previous movie. I will have to find the book and read it.
I want to give mad props to Arthur Kipps / Daniel Radcliffe / Harry Potter. You’re stuck in an old abandoned house surrounded by the sea with no one else around, all the locals make the hex sign when you tell them you want to go there. But when you look out the window and see a dark shadowy figure in the cemetery that disappears in the blink of an eye, you run out and yell “who’s there?”
When there’s a loud pounding noise in the middle of the night in one of the upstairs rooms, what do you do? Why, grab an axe and a candle and go check it out!
