Just to cut to the chase, I liked this movie. I found it scary and that was the point so it worked for me. So why am I only giving this a 4 out of 10? Because while I kind of liked it, I have no interest in ever wanting to see it again (unless it is edited WAY down) and there were way too many parts of it that just weren't very good.
I understand this had a low budget and a small crew, and I think they did do a pretty good job with what they had to work with - but that doesn't make this movie "good." It's not a 1 star movie, but it's definitely not a 10 star movie either.
Not everyone who wants to be a film maker is good at it. There was definitely some talent here but it wasn't consistent throughout the film. I've seen people with better budgets make much worse movies than this, but there are too many places in this movie where the framing of the shot just wasn't right and the close ups were ridiculously close and the timing was off and the scene went on too long and give it a rest with the background music already... Things like that. They overdid it a little with some of the cheap scares in my opinion, too.
But then there were the beautifully framed shots and moments where the editing was perfect and on point and scares that I thought were awesome and well done. I thought the acting was passable (the kind of acting where you can tell they're acting but it isn't quite bad enough to take you out of the movie), the lighting was decent and perfectly set the spooky mood in most of the movie, and the effects were decently done. Unfortunately the effects are things we've seen before in other movies, but fortunately they're done pretty well - but then they go on way too long and it just gets cheesy.
I bet the filmmakers themselves know which parts of this movie work and which parts don't and which scenes could use some serious trimming. If this didn't have to be a 90 minute feature, I am sure they could edit it down into an absolutely brilliant 30 minute horror segment that would knock our socks off and get them all a lot more work.
I would love to see THAT version.
The segments with the landlord and the guy's pranky friend could be completely cut from this. That would be a start. They didn't do a bad job, they just aren't necessary to the story and don't really add anything to it. Honestly, I fast forwarded through way too much of this movie.
It's been difficult to find good haunted house or ghost story movies that are actually scary, and when I find one, I gotta say I like it. If you like that sort of thing and can get past it being drawn out longer than it should be, then I think this is probably worth a shot for you.
Calling this movie "good" is too much of a stretch. It's definitely good in parts, but in too many parts it's just not.
