morrison-dylan-fan
After being told for ages by a family friend that Abigail Breslin is an underrated modern Scream Queen,I was pleased to find one of Breslin's Horror titles being sold at a local DVD shop for £2! Taking a look at some old issues of UK film mag Empire recently,I noticed Kim Newman give a review where he praised it as a straight to video breakout,which led to me decided that it was time to get haunted.The plot-1984:Waking up the day before her 16th birthday, Lisa goes downstairs,and spends the day planning with her family about where to go on her birthday,whilst Lisa's dad Bruce tries to fix the car.Waking up the next morning,Lisa is horrified to discover that she is re-living the entire day.As the day repeats itself for weeks on end,Lisa tries to make the rest of her family aware of the time loop they are stuck in,but finds that when she wakes up that everyone is back to being completely unaware. Failing to change the family routine,Lisa starts investigating every corner of the house,where Lisa soon discovers that she and her family are not the only ones trapped in a time-warp.View on the film:Casting the location against Gothic Horror fog and an icy score from Alex Khaskin,director Vincenzo Natali and cinematographer Jon Joffin enter the house with an extraordinary creepy atmosphere.Locked up in the house, Natali and Joffin cloud the house in long,lingering shadows which give the house an excellent doom-laden mood.Working in time with editor Michael Doherty, Natali unlocks the secrets of the house with dazzling stylisation,as jagged overlapping images and blazing tracking shots bask the film in a gripping,tense vibe,as Lisa starts breaking the foundation of the house.Initially giving the parents a sweet appearance,the screenplay by Brian King takes the unique approach of keeping the family away from being the "monster",with King (a good last name for a Horror writer!) instead allowing some breathing room for the scenes with Lisa and her well-meaning,but flawed family.Putting everyone in a time spin,King superbly weaves dark comedy,mind-bending time travel and nerve-shredding horror. Pilling up the time-loops,King gives each loops its own distinctive quality by linking each darkly comedic family moment with the sinister mystery,that King opens up in an expert manner,which cleverly allows the viewer to put the bricks of the house together with Lisa.Wrapped in thick dark shades, Stephen McHattie gives a fantastic performance as the mysterious "Pale Man",with McHattie cracking brittle voice breaking the "perfect" façade of the house. Leaving a bedroom filled with iconic Rock posters, Abigail Breslin gives an excellent performance as Lisa,thanks to Breslin being able to deliver a scream with real guts,and also giving Lisa a deep sense of determination to solve the mystery,which Breslin links with a delicate consideration over what effect the time loop is having on her family,as Lisa tries to find the haunter.
MugseyGrant
Watched This Film This evening and decided it was a film I had not seen or heard of until discovered it sitting on a shelf. I wasn't sure at first when I saw and still not sure what I think of it now. My views of the film are good and bad firstly lets talk about the bad parts. Naming a film after a Pokemon may be a strange title and don't understand why it was given such a name across the whole film didn't feel the name made much sense. The film was very slow at the start and almost sent me asleep why watching this found some of the acting a little off and Abigail could have done better would have been a much better rule and better film if they had found a better actress sorry Abigail. The story reminded me of Groundhog day if it had been a horror film. However, there are some good parts was very impressed by some of the male roles who I feel put on a good feeling to the film as supporting cast members. Why I would say don't go out your way to watch this film. I feel it plays strongly on the creative areas another reason I gave it a 6 rating was the fact a few times it did make me jump this film had some good moments but failed and might have been better if they casted someone other than Abigail Breslan.
view_and_review
Five minutes into the movie I'm thinking: "Oh, no. Another scary movie with a petulant teenager with behavior problems though she comes from a decent family." Not too long after that she reveals that she and her family have been reliving the same day over and over yet she is the only one that realizes it, hence the attitude towards her parents. The movie got significantly better from there.Although "Haunter" stole some ideas from other movies that's not an issue because what is truly original anymore? There were a few hair raising and bogeyman moments but the movie was built upon the situation Lisa (Abigail Breslin) and her family were in and how they could get out of it.Abigail was the star of the movie and she held her own. As for the story, it was decent and there weren't any SMH moments from anyone doing cliché scary movie stunts.
Ivar Olesk
I found this movie from a list of 18 000 other horrors just looking for something to watch. I had never heard of it before and to my surprise I found something that touched me deeply.This isn't your run of the mill ghost movie. I find that this here is something really special. I wouldn't even call it a horror. The script and writing is just incredible in my opinion. A really original take on the family moves into house and father is possessed and kills family theme. Still the movie is not a horror. I didn't feel scared at all but what I did feel sad at times and ponderous as to what was even happening in the movie.The acting is good. I really cared about the characters and prayed that they will make it. And I swear I was almost in tears at the end. Even though it wasn't really that emotional.The movie kept me intrigued until the very end. I honestly don't have anything negative to say about the movie except i would've liked to see a final interaction between Lisa and Olivia. 10/10 for me.