marleneholmhammershoej While I'm no movie expert, I am a horror fan and not easily scared. Sadly, there's so long between a horror movie which really delivers, but this one did rather well I thought. What makes it all the more joyful, is the lack of reliance on special effects. It's well paced and uses the art of suggestion rather than cheep jump-scares, a style I appreciate. Furthermore, I found myself sympathizing greatly with the female protagonist, another key element in a good horror movie. This movie keeps the viewer speculating and guessing until the end, which I find is the turning point of a scary movie. Nothing is more scary that the unknown, as we well know. This brings me to the only regret I have about this movie, -the ending. I won't reveal anything, but as most suspense movies, the ending leaves the viewer a bit disappointed. I for my part can forgive the movie for this, since it relates to the point above. It's the unknown which is most scary, the sum of possible explanations. As soon as the movie settles on one specific explanation, most of the suspense is diffused. Don't let this keep you from viewing the movie though. I promise, it postpones the inevitable solution as long as possible. All in all; no masterpiece, but delivers as a horror movie.

begob An unsettled couple with a baby on the way move back from the city to the wife's hometown, but she dreads their new home while everyone else thinks she's crazy.Dialogue heavy psychological ghost story with problems in script, direction, editing and pace. The stand out feature is the photography and framing of shots, where a lot of care and intelligence is on show from the start. The dialogue is often too much or just trite, and many scenes start too early or end too late, and some of the cut aways or inserts in the editing are pointless. There is a good house warming scene, lively and well observed, but that's about it. The biggest problem is that the ghost story doesn't measure up to the psychological drama, with no drive to it - comparable to The Babadook - and the director's overuse of jump scares is feeble. And 111 mins? 20 too many.The parts are well played, with the lead actress giving good close up and the mother and psychic showing their experience, but sometimes the actors struggled with the dialogue and the lack of motivation within the story.The music is good but nothing outstanding.Overall - frustrating to see so much quality serving a weak story.

rooee If it's gonna be dumb at least make it fun. That's surely the unwritten rule of horror. But this bland and generic haunted house indie makes the fatal error of trying to keep a straight face throughout, however predictable the events and however skin-crawling the dialogue. It's restrained in its deployment of violence – but also, sadly, in terms of enjoyment.Jennifer (Emily Goss) and Luke (Taylor Bottles) move into a big crumbling house in a sleepy Kansas suburb. She's seven months pregnant and reluctant. He urges her to give the place a go. They're soon visited by Jennifer's overbearing mother, Meredith (Cathy Barnett), whose presence seems to trigger memories in Jennifer of a previous breakdown. So when the house starts taunting 'n' haunting, the assumption is that Jennifer is simply on the turn again. Most of the horror (and accompanying tedium) emerges from the fear of not being believed, and the threat to mother and child.It's a familiar setup: giving a chance to an instantly creepy house; one partner who's nervous and one who's patient; the forbidden room; the secret past; the strange staring neighbours. I was surprised when no one finds a box of old video tapes and newspaper cuttings. The 'Better Movie Checklist' looms large: The Omen (creepy child); Poltergeist (tossed furniture and a visiting psychic); The Shining (ambiguous twins); The Haunting (a chilling case of mistaken identity).But more than anything there's the presence of Rosemary's Baby: motherhood anxiety seeps into the very fabric of the film; particularly its best scenes, between Jennifer and her scheming, possessive mother. There's a moment when Jennifer goes to her mum's house for solace, and they seem to slip back into roles that have existed since Jennifer's childhood. There's enough eerie tension here to suggest the story may be turning towards an intriguing third act. But that junction is promptly passed by.The overarching problem is, the cinematic influences are great but where's the USP? The drama is rote, the plot is plodding, and the scares are imaginative only on a micro level: mouse traps triggered by an unknown force, or boxes inexplicably moving of their own accord. Like many a horror movie without an identity, it starts well enough, with some intriguing, subtle spookings. But alas, it becomes quickly clear, through formulaic plot beats and zombified dialogue ("There's no such thing as ghosts"), that this is a movie lacking a unique personality.Speaking of which, Goss and Bottles put in a pair of performances which are adequate at best. Having far more fun are Barnett as the mother and Jim Korinke as the possibly-psychic Walter. The latter gets the best piece of bad dialogue: a WTF climactic speech about the forces of energy (or something) which is presumably meant to tie everything up, but which is so rambling and bizarre that you have to wonder if the actor himself knew what he was on about.The photography has a pallid appearance, all autumn hues and naturalistic lighting, which only serves to highlight the unconvincing characters and jars with the laughable events. When Jennifer is being tossed around by the poltergeist, a different score would have made it comedy gold. But instead we get by-the-numbers ambient doom music connoting something much more horrifying than what we're actually seeing.Remarkably, at the end I was left unsure as to whether a key character was meant to have died. The reactions of the other characters just seemed incongruent. I'm not sure if this was unforgivably poor writing and editing or whether I'd simply stopped caring by then. Either way it does nothing to endorse this very uninteresting and uninspired film.

MartinHafer "The House on Pine Street" is an excellent horror film. It's good because the purpose of a horror film is to leave you scared and disturbed...and it does a really, really good job of scaring viewers half to death. While the story is pretty good, what really makes the movie work is the mood. Directors Aaron and Austin Keeling do a great job of building suspense and setting a dark and forbidding tone. Along with the effective music, you cannot help but be pulled into this tense story.The story begins with a young couple moving back to the wife's hometown. She's pregnant but instead of being happy to be near her mother, Jennifer (Emily Goss) is tense and you soon see why. Her mother is a very controlling and difficult person--and Jennifer dreads being near her. However, while Jennifer thinks this is her big problem she soon realizes she has an even bigger one on her hands...the house is haunted or filled with demonic spirits or something ungodly is going on there. However, while she notices weird sounds, finds faucets turning on by themselves and even, on occasion, sees people who soon disappear, her mother and husband are very dismissive of Jennifer's fears about the house. They treat her again and again like she is losing her mind. What's really going on here and what about Jennifer's baby....? And are the mother and husband somehow in on it....but what is it?!If you are a person who insists that every loose end is tied up perfectly and you eventually must understand what is happening and why, then you might just be a bit disappointed in this movie. It ends leaving many questions unanswered. This doesn't mean there are plot holes but it leaves the viewer to decide for themselves as to what's really happening. This didn't bother me because why this all occurs didn't seem to matter. It was clear, like in another scary film, "1408", that this house simply was evil and was bent on driving Jennifer out of her mind...or worse. See this film...it's an excellent low budget film that proves you don't need a huge budget in order to craft a very good picture.