Such a frustrating disappointment

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Something odd about the way this film was shot made it feel low budget, but it engaged in some very compelling bits of subtle, paranoia-laced horror early on, particularly with the way people continuously stared at Jennifer, in a way that could easily just be normal yet when amplified through the uncomfortable eyes of the protagonist, come across almost paranormal in how unsettling it is. When it does start up with its Haunted House Shenanigans, it tends to do so in a way in some rather straightforward ways, with noises and shadows and visual hallucinations, all done in a style to make it rather unclear as to whether its an actual haunting or all in Jennifer's mind. Certain physical feats (such as a broken wooden door) seem too extreme to just be in her head, but are extremely plausible to actually be just in her head (the door was old and likely damaged from mildew and humidity).The film does a great job despite its low budget look and feel at hooking you in and keeping you as perpetually tense and paranoid as Jennifer. There seems to be a breakthrough with the character Walter at one point which further adds to the mystery as to whether this is even some manner of "ghost" or some other inexplicable phenomenon. Where it completely falls apart is near the end, in a conversation/expo-dump with Walter, where he goes and explains that it isn't an actual ghost haunting but... "Energy" Namely, Jennifer's "energy" is like, just so intense, you know, so it, like, manifests in spooky ways. You see, like, her like "energy" like interacts with other people's "energy" and other thing's "energy" and that causes Jennifer to savagely beat herself up and destroy everything. Because since she wants to not live in the house, her "energy" is causing her to self destruct and destroy everything around her in a fitful desire to move out of the house. Leaving aside the fact that energy doesn't work that way, this pseudo-science "magic" feels extremely close to astrology, with the idea that people's "energy" or more accurately "midichlorians" vibrate in some magic way that cause actual physical effects in the world, which in turn also has magic that interacts with them. If this were the case, everyone's magic energy would be blinded, deafened, and drowned by the overwhelming nuclear "energy" of the sun every single day.

Luke (Taylor Bottles) and Jennifer (Emily Goss) move back to her Kansas home town after an incident in Chicago which leads us to believe Jennifer is mentally unstable. Her condescending mother Meridith (Cathy Barnett) is eager to help out her resisting daughter. Soon there are ghosts, but they only seem to effect Jennifer, who also has issues outside of the house. They drag the ghost story on way too long until I thought this was going to be a Rosemary's Baby film which would have been better than where this went, which was nowhere.The ghosts are explained by Walter, the atheist (Jim Korinke) in a confusing mess that even Jennifer couldn't buy. The ghost seemed to center around the bedroom closet, whose door doesn't fit the door seal due to house settling. And what was with the mute neighbors? Was that supposed to tie into something? Guide: 1 F-word. No sex or nudity.

Eerie, atmospheric and at times genuinely unsettling, its a respectable addition to the haunted house genre. The movie is probably a little too long at just under two hours, but the viewers patience during the slow build up is rewarded with some chilling scenes, added to greatly by the movies creepy sound effects which are utilized extremely craftily. The lead actress, Emily Goss, does a fine job of portraying a tortured individual, akin to the mother in The Babadook, a very different type of haunted house flick. The film makers seem to have made the most of an obviously limited budget and for the most part avoid the usual clichés/tropes movies of a similar nature often surrender to.

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.