Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This documentary is one of the scariest haunting stories of which I've heard, and is probably the best episode in Discovery's haunting series. I will warn you that there are spoilers ahead.The premise of the story that the Snedeker family needs to move closer to where the oldest son, Stephen, is being treated for cancer. The family thinks they have found the answer to their prayers when they find a large home that has just been remodeled that is being leased for a very reasonable price. However, they soon learn the reason for the bargain. The house is a former funeral home. However, with the expense of the son's cancer treatment weighing heavily on the family budget, the Snedekers are unable to afford breaking their lease and moving to yet another house. Demons soon invade their domicile - or they invade the demons' domicile, depending on how you look at it - until the supernatural detectives, the Warrens, are called in and with the help of an exorcism, restore peace to the household.Just as much as fright, though, I felt a great deal of anger at the Snedekers as parents. For one thing, Mr. Snedeker seems to believe that the size of his electricity bill is more important than the mental health of a child recovering from cancer since he removes all of the light bulbs from the basement bedroom so that Stephen can no longer sleep with the lights on. Then he forces the boy to continue sleeping in this bedroom in spite of his tales of horror of being tormented by apparitions coming from the former embalming room adjacent to his basement bedroom. He does this in spite of the fact that he and his wife have both personally been the victims of attacks and witnesses of various manifestations of the house's spirits. Afterwards, in despair, the boy just gives in to the demons' collective will, manifesting in more and more bizarre behavior until he finally attacks a visiting cousin. How Mrs. Snedeker could have invited this young niece into her home in the first place just because she wanted the companionship and help around the house, having witnessed firsthand the mayhem that the house's demons can cause, as well as her son's deteriorating mental state, is a wonder to me.I have read an interview with the author of a book on this haunting, which tracks this documentary closely, and he paints both the Warrens and the Snedekers in a very unflattering light in that interview. He basically says that he does not really believe the Snedekers' stories, since even the Warrens themselves told the author that they think that all of their clients are crazy including the Snedekers. Plus, apparently there was considerable drug and alcohol abuse going on in the Snedeker household and the family members would never tell the same story twice. The author only went through with writing his book because he was already legally obligated to do so.However, even if the account told in this documentary is total fiction, it is well told and frightening fiction and I highly recommend it. It is much better than the movie which suffers from a real lack of imagination given the subject matter.

I went to the gym last week. I flipped on the TV for background noise, with no intention of actually watching TV. This documentary happened to be on. I overheard some of the dialouge during my first set. It made me curious, so I started watching a bit. 45 min later, and with 5 other people who had joined me, we had all abandoned our work-outs. We were glued to the TV. I'm not a fan of horror or suspense movies. I am generally a skeptic about the supernatural. I do not believe in God. However, something about this show really, really got to me (and the 5 other people at the gym!). It was the most well done, and scariest account of a co-called haunting that I have ever come across.

I made the serious mistake of watching this feature length documentary shortly before going to bed. I did not sleep at all that night.This is the allegedly true story of the Parker family, whose eldest son is terribly ill and requires frequent hospital visits. In order to be closer to the hospital where he receives treatment, the entire Parker family move into a new home which is a shorter drive from the facilities. It is also conveniently located quite close to a cemetery. The house itself is a large, impressively grandiose estate, but when Mr. and Mrs. Parker head downstairs just after purchasing the home, they discover a basement room filled with an odd assortment of surgical tools and a large freezer. To their horror, the couple realize they are standing in a disused embalming room. The house was once a funeral home.Having sunk their life savings into the purchase of their new home, The Parkers have no choice but to go ahead and move in. They decide to conceal the history of the house from their children, but odd things soon begin to occur. A kitchen floor stubbornly refuses to be cleansed of a vicious pool of blood. The sickly teenage boy, Paul, begins hearing voices, and all of the children see phantoms and shadows moving throughout the house. Paul's temper begins to fray and he grows increasingly violent. Not even removing him from the house seems to help, which his parents do after he attacks his own cousin. Instead, the forces inside of the house shift their focus, and the demonic displays of physical violence and destruction reach explosively frightening levels. By the time a team of parapsychologists arrive to investigate, it is almost too late. This is a very eerie documentary, and incredibly well made. The mood throughout is suffocatingly dreary and filled with unrelenting dread. The performances are all quite good and somehow, genuine fear is infused into every frame. Whether it's the discovery of the embalming equipment in the basement, or a face-to-face encounter with a black-eyed demon in the darkness, this documentary will leave you with a sinking feeling of horror in the pit of your stomach and an overwhelming urge to glance around your immediate surroundings during the commercials, just to make sure there is nothing lurking in the shadowy corners.I really had not intended to stay up and watch the entire program, but it hooked me easily and kept me watching late into the night, despite the fact that I had to get up early for work the next day. I didn't sleep that night anyway, and kept my bedside light on all night long. That's how unsettling I found this program to be, and I don't scare easily.If you like ghost stories, historical accounts of haunted houses, and having the holy old crap scared out of you, watch this show the next time it's run on TV. It's one of the best shows of its kind I have ever seen. Be sure to catch its companion piece: A Haunting in Georgia, as well.

I started watching this for no particular reason and couldn't stop. It's basically documentary format telling of a supposedly true story involving a haunted house. It was very well acted, directed, and produced. Although it totally had a made-for-TV vibe, in this case the people involved in the creative process really nailed the genre. My girlfriend was scared to death and begged me to change the channel to "Pet Star" or "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction" or maybe even "Animal Face-Off" (three of our standby favorites) but I refused, wresting the remote from her hand as I threw back my head and cackled maniacally. Anyway, I couldn't stop watching, I had to know what happened next. I think this movie is going to catch on as one that I'll watch every All Hallow's Eve and get my friends (who are legion, I assure you) to watch as well. We started out laughing about the bearded demon guy when he first appeared but by the time it was over and I was in bed I was terribly frightened that he was at any moment going to show up in my room and make with the spooky. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes horror. It may not be a remake or cop any Japanese trends, but it's something special. All who were involved should be very proud.