Powerful

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

"The Bates Haunting" is a stereotypical Direct-to-DVD feature that you would most likely see at your local RedBox and would probably ask yourself who would actually rent this before you pick up the latest new release.While the story takes place at a real Halloween attraction called The Bates Motel & Haunted Hayride, you can't help but feel like this film is something that is riding a more popular and iconic horror film and comes off like something SyFy would have produced. Beside that, the film contains very bad and lackluster acting, the story is boring and predictable, the gore effects are about as convincing as a roadside haunted house attraction, it has no cohesive tone and absolutely no atmosphere, you have to deal with two stars of "Jackass" being shoe-horned into the film, it tries and fails to be funny way too many times, and the main character is very unlikable.The film does have a solid performance from Zachary Fletcher but, even then, he eventually follows suit and ends up as bad as the rest of the cast. Overall, the film comes off like a cliché low budget horror film and is just completely forgettable in almost every single way.

Maybe its due to my seeing this movie immediately AFTER having the misfortune of watching "After Darks Film:The Haunting of Whaley House", but I did not find this movie to be near as crappy as some have opined it to be. In fact after having watched what is a very real crap-fest "The Haunting of Whaley House", I actually rather enjoyed "The Bates Haunting". Don't get me wrong this is indeed a very much B-grade horror flick, but its definitely one that has enough redeeming qualities to hold my attention throughout, as well as the movie as a whole made complete sense. The actors did a fine job of playing each of their respective roles, the gore scenes are done very professionally and would rank right up there with the quality special effects of some of the grade A-horror movies. It had a beginning, middle, climax, and an end that left me feeling satisfied with the overall movie.Maybe the fact that I had just watched the REALLY-pathetic-in-EVERY- SINGLE-WAY-movie, "The Haunting of Whaley House", that had me going into "The Bates Haunting" with very little expectations, but whatever the reason I can tell you that this film was miles apart from that pathetic garbage, and offered more than enough entertainment that left me totally satisfied at the conclusion of the film. I even took the time to REwatch "The Bates Haunting" the next day to see if my opinion of it changed and/or if it would even be tolerable for a complete repeat viewing...and I can tell you that Yes, it did hold up, I watched the entire movie again,and had no change of heart as to how I felt about the film going into without having had the horrible misfortune of viewing "Whaley House" immediately before hand.To me, that says an awful lot due to the fact that there are quite a few "good" horror movies that just don't hold up in repeat viewings, whereas "Bates" absolutely did!

I don't know if is the bad acting that reminded me of those cheap 90's straight to video movies. Or the bad directing and stiff actors that also reminded me of the old video era of porn. Unfortunately was a bad combination for a good plot. I also thought of how nice would have been to buy the book in an airport to read during a long flight. Using my imagination to follow the narrative could have being a better idea than watching the movie to the end. It didn't seem low budget, so i guess it was a bad choice in acting and directing. One particular shot that is repeated over an over will get on your nerves very soon into the movie. Don't be fooled by the title either, it has nothing to do with Bates motel.

I'm a lifelong horror fan, and there's a lot out there, especially streaming, that you can be spending your time watching. A lot of it is pretty horrible. I can assure you this one is not as horrible as those movies, and is a good time.Don't go into this wanting to take everything seriously. The Bates Haunting has more of a tone like the Hatchet movies - old school styled horror, can laugh at itself, and hits the ground running so you're never bored watching it. Kind of like Hobo with a Shotgun but not all "LOOK AT ME!!!" about everything.What's worse than a boring horror movie? Nothing. Even that, that you're thinking right now as you're reading it. Trust me, I've seen a lot of boring horror movies.I can go on and on about The Bates Haunting and why you should watch it, and in turn, bore you out of watching it. I'm not gonna do that! I can boil everything down into one line that will make or break you wanting to watch:TWO PEOPLE GET EATEN BY A COMBINE HARVESTER.If you can't appreciate that, what are you doing reading reviews about horror movies? Go play POGs with the neighbor kids or something instead. They still make those, right?