Sucked so bad I was almost angry at the end (spoilerish, beware)
How in the ever loving world did this get made? This is what is baffling to me. Mediocres get propped up with millions of dollars to make forgettable films. Who did the filmmakers know? I mean seriously.
I'm trying to put my finger on what made this such a disappointing effort. And if this is a first time filmmaker, I will try to temper this a bit, since, well, mercy?
*Hackneyed premise -- I will let you have that old and well worn premise as long as you attempt something new and intriguing with it. I can't say that was achieved here. We get the opening, historic seance with the one fool who will always break the circle; however, this time there is a slight twist. Points for that except...
*Almost no time is spent on that reveal so it doesn't serve or propel the story into the next action. A dud and
*We DON'T get led back to the origin of the original evil or why they're bothering people all these years or what happened to the other people whose lives/spirits were devoured
*Then we get the grieving family with all the tired types---clueless dad who has NEVER seen a horror movie a day in his life, apparently; the angry, gothic older teen daughter with the tired boyfriend she sneaks in the haunted house they've moved their sad selves into; the bland, hollow-eyed younger siblings who could have been blended into just one character since they don't actually do much in the film but look sad and cute and curse too much (should have kept that part out)
*haunted antiques that are fairly impotent. I was really looking forward to more hijinks with the old camera. The dollhouse was cool, but again, nothing much happening there. I've seen better in opening credits!
*Concerned neighbor who doesn't help them AT ALL! I mean, really woman? She should have broke it down for the dad the minute she saw him move in with kids. Also, this house was in a crowded neighborhood clearly, from the cars parked across the street and yet no one sauntered over to say, don't buy that joint? No one said, B, you better roll out, folks dying up in there! Homeowners will even tell you if a house has serious plumbing issues--and when you look it up with the city, you'll find that they were right! But they won't tell you everyone who buys that house ends up dead or missing?! Sucky neighbors for sure.
*What's up with the realtor? Is she Burgess Meredith from BURNT OFFERINGS? If so, they didn't really let her ham it up enough, lol.
*What does it take for certain people to STAY out of a known haunted house that is trying to kill them? When the kids snapped out of it, why didn't big sis grab them by the hand and get to booking? She could have ran a mile down the road and made that call! Would have had better reception, too! I would have been like, "Pops in the house, cut up, get him an ambulance...we are down the street!" Why? Because I have seen horror movies--they always get you when you go back in!
So, I think this film's main weakness was it's writing and its plot. It's 2016. You can't be writing horror movies as if it's 1960 and we haven't seen anything since. Even the 70s haunted house movies were off the chain. You got to come harder than that.
On the PLUS, POSITIVE SIDE: The child actors were fine. The special effects for the original ghost was pretty awful, but the rest of the production was okay. They chose a nice looking house, and I loved the brightly colored stained glass window in the attic. I wish they had done more action up there and worked it in somehow. If they had tightened the script with a better pay off in the end, they could have achieved something scary enough to continue at least for a sequel. As it is, I'm annoyed I watched it.