Sounds, visions, strange goings-on; dead people, supernatural entity, ghost telephone: yep, this is a haunted house movie. It has a few recognizable names and faces in the cast, the protagonist is a teen boy, and the climax and ending are the most notable bits. What else do you want to know?
Forgive me for being blase about 'Haunt.' It's the first feature film of director Mac Carter or writer Andrew Barrer, and their contributions are fine. It's well made from a technical standpoint, including editing, effects, sound design. I think the cast perform admirably, including those I'm familiar with (Ione Skye, Danielle C. Ryan, Jacki Weaver) and those less well known to me (Harrison Gilbertson, Liana Liberato, and others). I really do like the writing; the characters feel slightly smarter and more level-headed than most genre cliches, and the narrative and scene writing is reasonably engaging. A job well done, yes?
It just seems like this picture isn't especially remarkable in any way. It's suitably well done, but nothing leaps out as particularly grabbing, unique, or essential. We get some specific jump scares, some general creepiness and atmosphere, and that's a wrap. I mean no disrespect to anyone involved; I did enjoy this - only, unless you're a fan of someone in the cast, there's no major reason to seek this out over comparable titles. Why, it comes and goes so unobtrusively that I was astonished to look at the digital timer and realize the feature was already two-thirds over, as it felt like nothing had really happened yet.
Do I have any abject criticism to level? Well, I think the framing of the narration is excessive; it's arguably necessary, given the way the story is told here, but surely a bit of a rewrite to excise it would have only benefited the film. I also think like the resolution of the climax is a bit of a cheap shot, ruthlessly punishing an innocent in a way that felt extraneous; the result is a title that's less satisfying than it could have been. A tiny bit more time spent developing the plot would have helped to tilt the odds in the movie's favor, in my opinion.
Oh well. You could do better, you could do worse. 'Haunt' is good enough; the question rather comes down to simply how much you love haunted house movies.
