The Mount 2 (2022)

An old weirdo brings some twenty somethings to an abandoned mansion, where he cuts his finger and demands the two girls suck the blood off it. They’re upset but surprisingly comply.  The weirdo does a ritual and then requests his fee for guiding them there, but they tell him they can’t pay.

The kids hang out, listen to music, play games, talk, and get bored. There are ghosts in the house and it seems like one of the guys can see them, but he doesn’t say anything.

Then four teenaged ghosts walk up the path to the house and holy crap now they’re singing. What the hell.  

I haven’t seen the first movie. I’m not sure if it would make a difference. I don’t know who the teen ghosts are or why they’re singing. But do I need to know anything about them when it’s people in a haunted house? I did not enjoy this, but if you’re going to watch it, you may want to watch the first one in case there was some plot point that was relevant.

The ghost teens are going to sing

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018)

It’s been two years since the deaths at Hell House. Other people have gone in to investigate, get views for social media, grab a souvenir, or for a dare. They’ve all disappeared.  Now Jessica and her team want to determine if the Hell House documentary is real or fake.

Jessica pressures Mitchell, the only member of the news team who didn’t disappear, into going in with her. She figures since he edited the film for the documentary, he would know the house inside and out. Jessica, Mitchell and a cameraman head in, while leaving Molly outside in case anything goes wrong.  Attention seeking psychic Brock and his cameraman show up unexpectedly and enter with them, but go off on their own once inside.

Jessica wants to go to the basement since there are supposed to be videos and photos in a fridge down there. Mitchell isn’t happy about this, but goes along with it.  Shortly afterwards Molly shows up asking why they called her in when she was clear she didn’t want to be inside. The problem is they never called her. Oh damn, that creepy house is at it again.   Oh Molly you and the rest of the crew are doomed.

This isn’t as good as the first film, but still good compared to most found footage movies. One reveal is footage of Alex from he first movie talking about how he lost all their money and Hell House is the way to get the money back.  So confirmation Alex is a jerk.

Ridiculous dialogue

I’d like to point out, and I think it’s important to clarify for the audience, that these four individuals who have gone missing were amateur ghost hunters. They were not trained professional paranormal investigators.  

Unlike other journalists, we film every part of our story from inception to publication. And we’re totally transparent. Everything is released once we’re published.

Hell House LLC (2015)

A reporter looks into the tragedy at Hell House, a haunted attraction where a number of guests and staff died on opening night.  She tracks down Sara, the lone surviving staff member, who agrees to an interview. 

Sara has never spoken to anyone about what she saw and reveals she has footage shot on opening night.  Some guests posted videos of opening night online, but the footage Sara provides has never been seen before. It includes the week leading up to the opening, as well as when things went wrong. Since this is a found footage film  you know things won’t go well for anyone.

The movie is done as if it’s a documentary. There are interviews with witnesses and journalists, varying video sources, and footage shot by the team reporting.  It’s creepy and unnerving, like when you think you see something move out of the corner of your eye or a shadow in a doorway.  The characters are mostly likable, and the one who’s a creeper is tolerable as long as he’s not talking about women. 

The Demon (2016)

A college kid asks his uncle for the key to his second house so he can have a party with his friends. His uncle replies he doesn’t have another house which you’d think would be the end of it. But when his uncle leaves the room, the kid finds the key and steals it.

What the kid doesn’t know is his uncle abandoned the house years ago after his wife passed away in it. He was warned by a priest to leave and never come back due to bad energy in the house.  

The group goes to the house and parties. It’s fairly tame since they just sit around a table eating.  Then the nephew puts on a Santa suit and everything goes to hell.  We’re about 39 minutes in before anything odd happens, and even then it’s not much.

This is a slow moving film.  The description says they’re celebrating New Year’s Eve so why is someone playing Santa? At one point the nephew locks the front door with the key. I’m not sure why, other than a plot point to make sure no one can escape when things go off the rails. The house has bars over the windows so the door is their only hope to get out. I can’t even remember the end of this one.

Darkness Rising (2017)

Maddie, her boyfriend Jake and cousin Izzy go to her childhood home the day before it’s to be demolished. The house has been closed for twenty five years since her mother murdered her baby sister.

Maddie’s come here to try to make sense of things, but Jake is worried because she’s having nightmares and seems obsessed with the number five. Izzy is excited about the possibility of looting what was left behind, but gets upset when the others don’t pay attention when she models her new vintage leather jacket.

Poking around awakens the evil in the house and strange things start to happen. A barking dog keeps them from leaving, no matter what door they try to open.  Jake discovers some sort of force field around the house and Izzy gets possessed.

Maddie comes up with an idea the house is the problem and why her Mom went insane. She says a house with the same architecture has been in a number of cities and the families who bought the house all went crazy and murdered each other.  I’m not confident in Maddie’s research skills to believe that she could track this down.

While the start of the film has promise, the longer it goes on the more disappointed you’ll be. If the house has been empty for twenty five years, why is it clean? Why does Maddie think a house scheduled to be demolished after 25 years vacant would have a working toilet?  Why would they go into the basement to find a window to crawl out of when there are larger windows on the first floor? Why is Maddie convinced the dog is her dog from twenty five years ago? Why do they need to go into the death nursery to flag down a passerby? If indeed the house can move from town to town to find new victims, then why did it sit abandoned for twenty five years rather than strike out on it’s own and find a new family? Why would it let itself be destroyed? Did no one notice when this house appeared overnight?  And most importantly if a house suddenly appears, how does it hire a realtor?  

Also there is a continuity issue with the caution tape repeatedly being strung across the front porch and then being down again. 

There is no dust, dirt or spiderwebs after 25 years

The kitchen looks freshly cleaned

Maddie’s childhood toy is still white and clean

Caution tape is up.

Caution tape is gone. 

American Ouija (2011)

Aka 19 Doors

Grace is working on a new book and moves into the Lindora Hotel which has been empty for years. The bar on the first floor is open and as she’s ordering some fries, she tells the bartender and patrons she’ll be there for a few weeks. She neglects to tell her fiancé, which her teenage daughter points out is not cool. 

The hotel closed years ago when business dried up after some murders. Grace thinks the murders are cool and the alleged hauntings are okay, but she shrieks in horror at a flickering light.  

Later on she’s dragged down the hallway by a man in a black hooded cape. When the police ask for a description of the man, she says black like a shadow, to which the police say okay a black man.  Grace says nothing even though the only thing black about the guy was his cape. So far there is nothing likable about Grace.

Grace meets a priest in the bar who she later asks for help. She also meets the owners daughter Katie, who is referred to as limited. Grace proves to be even more unlikable as she makes jokes about Katie’s intellect and forces Katies hands on the ouija board so she doesn’t have to touch it. This way if anything evil comes through it will go after Katie, not her. 

While being in the hotel is making Grace more callous, she wasn’t that sensitive to begin with. She’s also not doing much writing as we see her take six seconds to type eight letters. If I’m going to watch a crazy writer sitting at a typewriter in a large, empty, haunted building, I’d rather watch The Shining

When Grace starts looking into the history of the hotel, she asks Detective Patrone to show her the case files.  It must be a slow day because Patrone pulls the files for her to look through. Then he asks why she’s asking so many questions.  Maybe he should have asked that prior to giving her the files.

Although the hotel has been closed for years, there is no dust on anything.  The telephone and furniture are clean.  The ouija game is clean and the box cover doesn’t line up to the time period the hotel would have closed. Grace isn’t likable right out of the gate and you don’t care about her.  I cared more for her boyfriend who was barely in it.

Ridiculous Dialogue

Eva - Dean’s not going to like it.

Grace - Well that doesn’t really matter.

Eva - Of course it matters. He’s your fiancé.

Grace - Was it really that bad?

Maddte -  The owners just couldn’t take the stigma of the murders.

Grace (disgustedly) - You’re such a Christian. 

Grace - Hello, who are you?

Katie - Hi.

Grace - Hi who are you?

Katie - Gosh, gosh you’re pretty. Like me.

Grace - Sure. Who are you?

Katie - I’m Katie.

Grace - Katie? Katie! Yeah, Maddte’s daughter, the limited girl.

Grace - I’m going to ask the questions and you keep your fingers on there and see how it moves.

Katie -Like magic eight ball?

Grace - Yes, I know I don’t have to tell you to clear your mind.

Priest - Shame on you for making the limited girl work the board on her own.

Dean - Now you’re trying to drag a priest and a mentally challenged…

Grace - Limited, Dean.

Grace - Dean! What?! Do you to see me writing or are you just too dumb to hear the TAP! TAP! TAP! I swear to god if you ever do break my concentration again, I will find the closest impaling object and I will stick it right in your damn throat.

Psychic - You were supposed to move out.

Grace - I can’t leave. Things happen when I try.

The dust free ouija game in the abandoned hotel

Grace forcing Kate to put her and on the board

The man Grace describes as black like a shadow. 

The ghost who tries not to laugh

Grace refusing to drop the ouija box as she
is dragged down the hallway

It’s never good when a writers draft has blood on  it

Grace’s daughter smugly noting she’s smarter than her mom

As Night Falls (2010)

 Elizabeth wants a quiet evening at home with her boyfriend Otto, who just got back from being on tour with his band. But their douchebag friends decide to throw a party at her house, which we come to find out is actually her mothers house.  I’ve never understood why someone in Elizabeth’s position would go along with this. Just don’t let them in.

In a scene full of exposition, we discover that her parents bought this house for retirement. But then her dad died from a mystery heart attack. Now her mom has to work double shifts to be able to afford it.  So does that mean Elizabeth is living there for free? And why doesn’t mom sell the house rather than work 16 hour days? She’s always working so she can never spend anytime there. Also it’s haunted and the ghosts are going to kill anyone they can get their hands on.

This is one of those movies where you ask, am I supposed to like any of these people?  Otto, Elizabeth, and her younger sister Holly are nice enough, but are annoying to be likable. The other people are jerks that you’d never want to know, particularly pseudo punk Pennywise.  

Three questions about this movie. First, how were her parents planning on paying for this house?  Her dad retired so he wasn’t going to be bringing in any income.  Did he have an amazing pension that disappeared when he died? Second, why would anyone install a bathtub perpendicular to the wall? It’s awkward and impractical.  Third, if you’re going to say goodbye to a ghost girl who warned you’d be murdered, why would you stand on the site of her death where an evil spirit has been known to drag people to hell?  Nothing good can come from that.  

Studded collar? Check. Sex Pistols logo safety pinned to shirt? Check.
Stupid name? Check. Well I guess that means Pennywise is a punk.

Ghost girls eyeball is the best effect in the movie.

Final Exam (1990)

A parapsychology class professor offers his students a class project instead of a final exam. They are to go to the old Nostrand  house, where the family was murdered and the father disappeared. The bank seized the home but no one will stay there.  In an odd move, the government has asked the university to investigate.

The professor proposes the students stay in the house over the weekend to see if they can find evidence of supernatural activity.  There needs to be a minimum of six students who volunteer for the project.  If they participate, they can get their names in the trade journals - for what is never clearly explained.

Ten students volunteer  and drive out to the house, which is in the middle of nowhere. The house still has electricity and running water. The kids bring a camp stove, but forget the butane. A couple head out to the nearest store which is forty miles away.  This is confusing since they brought a can of kerosene. What was that for if not the stove? We never find out.

The group explores the house, sets up cameras and tape recorders, and then go to sleep. The next day they arise to eat breakfast which consists of Hostess products and Pepsi.  When reviewing the tapes, they see a weird ghostly figure and hear noises which they determine came from the basement. 

Later they realize two of the students are missing, and a couple the students see horrible apparitions of the father murdering his family.  Everyone wants to leave except Dave who says damn it, he came here to investigate and he’s going to do it even if he’s all alone.  The others decide a few people will go for help while the others stay with Dave.  Things go off the rails at this point.

This is a regional horror movie which would benefit by editing to decrease the run time. It was shot in 1985 but not released until 1990.  I definitely have a soft spot for regional 1980s horror and while nothing happens in the most of the movie, I still liked it. The sleeveless tshirts, huge station wagons, Hostess cupcakes and a character who has a yo-yo but isn’t considered a dork.  If only he’d used the yo-yo as a weapon.

Dave’s hair does not meet continuity requirements.
The second day, all of a sudden his hair gets short…

…when this is what his hair looks like most of the movie.  
Dave’s love of Pepsi is apparent.

The clue to where to look, but should you?

Yo-yo out the back window while driving? Yep.

He has multiple sleeveless t-shirts.

The insane painting found in the house.

Reading a tiny book from the dollhouse.

The crack parapsychology class

The murder house

Just a typical day at college

Duhrrrrr

Footage on the video tape from overnight

Detail of the painting

The Haunting of Whitlow House (2018)

An insufferable couple uses their life savings to buy a cursed murder house with the intention of turning it into a haunt.  This seems to be a questionable purchase, not only because it's in bad taste but it's in the middle of nowhere. I don't see how they're going to make a year round income off this thing. And don't even get me started on their props which look more like something you'd see in a department store, rather than something you'd see in a real haunt.

Perhaps the strangest thing about the house is the size of the basement. When the real estate agent shows it to them, it appears that they are on the catwalk in a warehouse. They explain the maze of hallways and this huge room by saying the basement is twice as big as the rest of the house. That's just weird.

Kate and her husband (whose name I can't remember) relate to each other with this sarcastic flirty banter that will make your eyes roll so far back in your head, you'll need a crowbar to set them right.  They are trying way too hard and seem very uncomfortable.  People only talk to each other like this in movies, or in bars. It’s so insincere.

Kate's brother is a policeman who can't believe she's gone along with her husbands lame idea of investing their savings in this house.  Kate asks if he can give her access to the case files for the murders because she wants authenticity.  Surprisingly he does and brings her a VHS tape of the murder scene of several college kids.

Kate has some creepy experiences in the house, as does her husband. At one point the lights go out and he yells that she's slammed the door so hard it shut off the lights. Is that really a thing?  I've been around a lot of door slamming and never once has a light turned off.

Before the opening of their lame haunt, they consult Penny, a local psychic with a vaguely European accent. At first she’s bored and then she ends up fleeing the home.  Then Kate spends some time washing the wall. Why Kate, why? What is the purpose of washing the wall?  And if your dream is to open your own haunt, and you've spent years in this profession collecting props, then why are your hallways covered in plastic and masking tape? And why are you using department store Halloween masks?  As expected, they don’t call it a murder house for nothing and things go horribly wrong.

Ridiculous Dialogue  

"The place has a lot of history. We've done our research. There's a lot of buzz." 

Here Comes Hell (2019)

Texan George goes to England to visit Victor who’s just bought an old mansion that used to be owned by an occultist.  Tennis player Freddie brings along his new girlfriend Elizabeth who is not up to the standards of this rich group of friends, especially Victors sister Christine who used to date Freddie.  

The group discuss snooty rich people things until after dinner when Victor announces he has a surprise. They are going to have a psychic hold a seance.  While not everyone is keen on the idea, eventually they start the entertainment which quickly turns into a nightmare.

At ten minutes into this film, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue. It’s based on the old dinner party and haunted house movies of the 1930s and 1940s.  However the contrast of the film makes it seem like a modern color film that’s had the color removed. I don’t now if that’s what they did or if it’s the lighting they chose, but I wasn’t feeling it. Although I did like that they appeared to use rear projection for the driving scenes.   

What made me start watching again was I saw someone refer to the film as Larry Blamire meets Evil Dead, both of which I love.  I didn’t find it as funny as Blamire’s films, but if you can get past the first ten to fifteen minutes of set up, it’s worth a watch.  The 1930s evil dead vibe is an interesting idea and they nailed the tone of the old movies. It’s an interesting combination.

They Lie Inside Us (2020)

 

A bland dad moves into a supposedly haunted house with his disabled daughter.  While his blandness keeps him from being totally dislikable, he’s definitely not going for dad of the year since he’s brought his disabled daughter to a haunted house and she can’t get up or down stairs on her own.

Dad is a writer but he’s had writers block since something terrible happened. He doesn’t mention what it is, but his dead wife pops up every once in awhile. Is she real? Just a figment of his imagination? And does this have anything to do with his daughter being disabled?

Dad’s hoping living in a haunted house will provide inspiration.  He has a list of movie monsters and when an idea strikes him, he writes a story.  It’s essentially the same story over and over. A woman in a nightgown is chased by a serial killer, a scarecrow or a killer clown, etc.

His daughter spends most of her time alone waiting for her dad to be free to get her upstairs or out the door. But dad is lost in his own head and even on Halloween he leaves her sitting alone downstairs while he writes another one of his stories with varying monsters.  

After watching tons of really low budget movies, this didn’t seem that bad. But there wasn’t anything about it that really drew me in either.  It was an okay way to pass the time but the ending was disappointing.

Ghosthunter (2016)

 

After Henry’s wife and daughter are murdered, he decides to go back to the scene of the crime. He’s concerned the ghosts of his family will be stuck there forever and wants to release them so they can be at peace.

Prior to the murders, Henry and his paranormal team set up equipment at the murder site, which is an abandoned mansion that a serial killer used as a kill site. They wanted to do experiments in contacting the dead.  They assume the equipment is still there since the police wouldn’t have known what is was.  Apparently the police aren’t very good at their jobs since the equipment includes computers. They certainly should have grabbed those to make sure there was no evidence of serial killer-y web searches or manifestos. 

The only skeptic in the group is someone’s girlfriend who is along for the ride.  When they show her a pair of goggles that look like something out of a steampunk convention, they tell her it’s an invention to see ghosts. She asks if she can use them. No one is concerned that she may damage their only pair of ghost glasses as she wanders off on her own without any instructions. Yes that’s right. They only have one pair of these fabulous ghost seeing spectacles.

When they start their experiments looking for apparitions, she continues using the glasses. Yes by all means, please allow the person who has no idea how to use them and doesn’t believe in ghosts to have the one means of actually seeing what you’re trying to contact.  Never give the amateur your ghost glasses!

The group captures some ectoplasm and the interactions with the ghosts become increasingly hostile.  For a bunch of ghost hunters, they don’t seem very well versed in their craft. They hear the voice of a friend up ahead when they just left him behind but don’t think it suspicious.  Pretty much every ghost hunting movie can be summed up by saying people go looking for ghosts and something goes horribly wrong.

This is an Asylum film so you know what you’re getting. It’s a step up from a lot of their stuff but its still not great. 

Ridiculous dialogue

Wait! Did anyone ever stop to think this could be dangerous?

Ghostwitch (2015)

When Nerd Zeke and his computer go to a cool kids pool party, they get thrown in the pool.  Zeke is rescued by Mattie, sister of the parties host. Since his computer is ruined, she offers him her computer and they discover they both are interested in the paranormal.

Zeke is part of a paranormal group called G.H.O.S.T. (we're never filled in on what this stands for). Mattie asks if he'll investigate an old house her family owns. She had an experience there as a child and there are legends that it is haunted.

Zeke, Mattie, and the team arrive at the home and find there is no dust or cobwebs, and the floors are super clean. It looks like someone lives there but nope, it's abandoned.

The characters do things that make no sense.  When their friend disappears, they wonder if they should call the police but decide not to because they don't want to call the locals attention to the house.  But they'd already been to the local diner and asked the waitress about the legend and the house. When she warned them about it, they scoffed at her. So yeah, the locals are already on to you, and they don't like you - especially since you ordered breakfast and then left before your order came and never notified your waitress.

Later someone knocks on the door of the home and they are afraid. They decide to be quiet so whoever is outside will go away. First of all, the lights are on in the abandoned house and it's night - they can see you. Second, they can hear you. Third, you're there with a girl whose family owns the building. So why are you afraid? If this scares you, are you going to be able to handle seeing a ghost?

This is the only paranormal team with a member who complains about investigating a house that might actually be haunted. She is angry that so many things are happening that she can't explain. Isn't that why you ghost hunt? To find some sort of proof that ghosts exist?  Why is this girl on the team? She's unnecessarily aggressive, accusatory, angry and other unflattering things that start with the letter A.

Skip this one as there is nothing new to see here. Move along.


Stupid dialogue about ghost hunting at a home known to be haunted

"She brought us here to investigate some house that she already thought was haunted and miraculously all these unexplainable things start happening. Coincidence? I think not.  It's probably not even real." - paranormal investigator that doesn't seem to grasp that unexplainable things happening can be classified as paranormal

Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2015)

During war torn London in World War II, children were sent out of the city to protect them from being killed in bombings.  The head mistress Jean and teacher Eve are tasked with accompanying a group of children as they journey out of the city. At the last minute a young boy, whose parents were killed in a bombing the night before, is added to their charge.  The boy is still in shock and rendered mute, and Eve feels protective of him.

The group takes up residence in an isolate manor, which can only be reached by a road which disappears at high tide.  Eve feels uneasy there. It's been abandoned for years and she thinks she's seen someone else on the island.

After the deaths more than one child, Eve wants to leave, but the stern headmistress won't let her take the children with her.  So Eve and Harry, a pilot she met on the train, start looking into the history of the home and discover the story of the Woman in Black.

I really liked the first Woman in Black movie, but this one was disappointing.  It's very slow paced and there isn't much supernatural action.   The ghost only appears a few times, and Eve's repeated shouts for Edward get really annoying.  Also for an area that is under blackout rules, they sure have a lot of candles at night.  There isn't another homes for miles, so the light would be a prime target for bombers. So much for keeping the children safe....oh yeah, and you moved into a haunted mansion.

Nightwish (1990)

Four undergrad students studying dreams head out to meet their graduate professor at an isolated house rumored to have paranormal activity.  The professor does some tests and messes with their heads. Soon there's a bunch of ectoplasm on the scene. In a unique approach to paranormal ectoplasmic activity, one of the girls decides the proper way to handle this is to beat it with her purse.

It's always a bad idea to be driven to an isolated location.  If anything goes wrong, oh like your professor is out of his freakin' gourd, then there's no way to get back to town. But these kids realize that too late as they're wondering if their professor is playing tricks on them, they're hallucinating, or there is actually supernatural activity before them.

Watch for the bandage on Jack's hand which moves to the opposite hand, and back again.

The Ganzfeld Haunting (2013)

Four students are assigned to work together on a psychology project.  They choose to replicate the Ganzfeld Experiment, which involves extra sensory perception and projecting ones thoughts to another person.

The group consists of: Becket whose parents own the abandoned house they are using for the experiment; Eliot who is responsible for the equipment; Lucky who is an unlikeable pain in the ass with an endless supply of cocaine; and Graves who is excited about the free drugs.

Graves is the first subject for the experiment.  The others sit in another room, while one of them tries to get Graves to realize that the flickering monitor in the room displays a certain playing card.  But instead of seeing the card, he starts seeing visions of his father who is deceased.  Becket decides to go next and she sees two little girls and lots of blood.

The group is freaked out and thinks they may be having visions of something that happened in the house.  Then again, it could just be the effect of all the hard liquor, cocaine, and marijuana, as well as the sleep deprivation, since none have slept in over 24 hours.  So basically they're in no shape to do their experiment, any data they get is unscientific and invalid.  So  they're all going to fail Psych.

The movie consists mostly of the four characters doing drugs, drinking, smoking pot, having sexual encounters and yelling at each other.  Oh, and every once in awhile they wander upstairs and someone catches a glimpse of a ghost.  But it doesn't really do anything so there isn't any reason to really be concerned.

Bill Zane has a brief role as Graves father, but he's only in flashbacks trying to be philosophical, and  only succeeding in being boring.  Why, Billy Zane, why?  And how many little baggies of coke does Lucky have in her bag?  And why do Eliot and Becket start doing coke when they showed disgust for it earlier in the film?  And how come no one is smart enough to realize that the use of drugs makes their experiment invalid?  Why, movie, why?

Book of Blood (2009)

Ghosts have highways that intersect, and at these intersections, spirits sometimes cross over into our world.  So goes the opening and closing scenes, bookending the story of the investigation of a home where years before a teenage girl was murdered while alone in her locked attic room.

A hired killer has been paid by a collector to procure the skin of a young man with unique scarring.  The young mans skin is so different from anything he's ever seen that our killer offers a deal to the young man.  He will have a quick, relatively painless death if he tells the man his story.  The young man agrees.

Dr. Mary Florescu and her assistant Reg are investigating reported paranormal activity at the now deserted house were a murder previously occurred.  Mary is a Professor at a local University and recognizes her new student Simon as the prior child media sensation who had a premonition regarding the death of his brother.

Mary believes Simon would be an asset to their investigation and that he'd be a good conduit for any supernatural entities in the house.  Reg is skeptical, but when there are multiple supernatural occurrences the first two nights, Mary is convinced they have made contact. She also starts having dreams about Simon and becomes a bit obsessed with him. Hey the guy sleeps in the nude and isn't shy about stripping down in front of her.  Reg is not amused and believes that Simon may not be on the level.  But Mary has lost perspective and won't tolerate any of Reg's suspicions since she believes Simon is providing the connection that lets the spirits access their world.

I had never heard of this movie, but my friends rented it. The movie was pretty good. It is more atmospheric than gory, although there are a few gross scenes.

The Conjuring (2013)

Roger and Carolyn Perron, and their five daughters move into a large old home they've just purchased.  While the kids are playing, they accidentally knock a hole in the closet wall. Surprisingly, Roger discovers that it is not actually a closet, but an entryway to the basement where the door had been walled over.

Going into the basement, Roger and Carolyn are surprised to discover a furnace and tons of items owned by previous owners.  No one shall ask why the Perrons would buy a run down house without getting a home inspection or, more importantly, confirming that they actually had a furnace.

Strange things start happening, and the family ends up terrified in their own home. They are unable to leave since all their savings have been invested into the purchase of the home. Desperate for a solution to their nightmare, Carolyn seeks the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal researchers who are lecturing at a local college.

The Warrens are renowned paranormal experts who have successfully helped others with their hauntings. The couple has a large locked room in their house filled with evil or haunted objects which they've removed to provide peace to the affected families.

Based on Carolyn's desperation, the Warren's agree to take the case and arrive at the house with their crew to investigate.  The level of activity increases and things get super creepy pretty fast as the evil spirits don't appreciate the Warren's interference.

This is one creepy, scary movie. The film mostly uses atmosphere to generate the scares. I prefer this type of film to one that uses blood or gore for scares. If a movie can successfully pull off a scary or tense atmosphere, then your own imagination will prove to be far scarier than whatever the filmmaker could imagine.  This one was scary enough that I don't think I could have watched it in the theater - since it's a huge dark room where some thing could sneak up behind me.

The Chair (2007)

The Chair? Now that's a completely uninteresting title.  Psychology student Danielle moves into a new apartment and strange things start occurring.  She tells her sister she believes the house is haunted, but since she's taking copious amounts of meds, her sister doesn't believe her and fears she's not actually taking her pills.

Danielle has the bright idea to look in the door that goes to a storage area under the eaves.  Strangely enough she never checked this area when she moved in.  Am I the only one that looks through a new place when I move in to see if anything was left behind by the previous tenants?

There are numerous items under the eaves that lead to the discovery that a magician used to live in the house in the early 1900s.  He not only did he do magic, but he experimented on a serial killer strapped in a chair - the same chair mentioned in the title.  And Danielle can learn all about it when she has a CD made from an old wax cylinder and matches it's audio up with an old movie of the actual experiment.  Hurray!

Danielle starts getting all wiggedy-whack, which makes her sister wonder if she's having another episode. Guess it's pointless to tell her Danielle is probably possessed by a child killer circa 1900.  But she'll probably find out soon since Danielle has taken an unnatural interest in a young boy who not only rides his bike up and down the sidewalk, but is also a terrible actor.

When the chair appears in the attic, and Danielle (who bears a resemblance to Nicole Sullivan) gets those crazy eyes, you just know it's trouble for anyone she can get her hands on.  And why would any kid be so stupid as to actually believe being strapped into that chair is a game?

At one point earlier in the film, the chair is seen hovering near the ceiling in the hallway.  This never happens again.  Too bad because I was hoping the chair would be haunted and move on it's own. Instead we get a thesis writing college student with no visible means of support living in a large three story Victorian and the implausible things that happen to her.

The Haunting (1999)

When her invalid mother dies, Nell isn't sure what to do since she's cared for her for years.   Her sister decides the best thing for both of them will be to sell their mothers apartment, which basically means sis wants some money.

Nell, whose feeling lost and abandoned, volunteers for a sleep study.  She's hoping to not only solve her sleep issues, but to figure out what to do with her life.  She's always let other people control her, and is excited about being on her own.

She arrives at a mansion and meets Theo and Luke who also volunteered to be subjects.  Dr. Marrow and his assistants show up later.  They arrive without any equipment, barely ask any questions,  hand out paper tests, and give no details on what they will be doing while in the house.  That's because the sleep study is a cover for Marrows actual research which is how people react to fear.  Oh that's just great since you're in a massive mansion which is essentially an uncontrolled environment and at least one of your subjects is mentally unstable.

Marrow tells the group  about the owner of this opulent mansion.  Later that night, Nell starts to experience various phenomenon. Based on what the spirits tell her, she believes that the owner was an evil man who murdered numerous children used as child labor to build his home.  Oh dear.... things aren't going well for poor Nell as she climbs a rickety old spiral staircase and has to be rescued. The question is, are these spirits only appear in Nells head, are they tricks set up by Dr. Marrow to gage his subjects fear, or is the place actually haunted by an evil spirit, and if so will everyone die?

This is a remake of the 1963 horror classic, The Haunting.  The original has atmosphere, tension and filled me with an uneasiness. It's also got a better story line.  The new story involves an evil wealthy man who uses child labor to build his dream mansion, but murders the children when it's convenient.  The sets are opulent and and there are many special effects. Luke's personality is distracting and more appropriate to something comedic, where it just seems out of place in this film.  So I'd recommend the original over this one.

Also I kept wondering who is paying the Dudleys (caretaker and cook) to care for this place?  They come out everyday to clean and do maintenance work.  And why the hell don't the Dudley's warn anyone who decides to stay there, rather than saying that they leave at dark and won't come back till morning, cryptically implying certain doom will result from spending the night?  Damn Dudley's... this all could have been avoided if they'd been straight forward about the crazy mansion.