It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a 2012 recycled made for TV film called "American Horror House." The film opens with a Lizzie Borden scene and then the house changes ownership to a sorority house that has no secrets from the viewer. New pledges are hazed as a party happens on Halloween night with the ghost slashers of the house. That's about it.Four girls in bras/panties. No sex, nudity or swearing. Relatively kid safe. One for the girls on a sleep over. Plenty of blood.

Not entirely avoidable by all means. There is some decent gore both in quality and amount, meaning that there is a fair bit of it and it doesn't look cheap. Some of the death scenes(though maybe there were too many because the horror elements outside of them suffered) are inventive and have an appropriate stomach-churning effect, the one with the saw stood out, while the other standout scene was when the sisters dressed as Sweet Alice Sweet. Morgan Fairchild- still looking amazing, she actually looks younger than she really is- is chilling and seems to be having a great time, by far the best performance of the movie. That is saying a fair bit actually because the acting generally ranged from overwrought to bland, in short while to be expected it was not particularly great. You don't get to know the characters either, in some instances they get under your skin(the two bitching sisters) or are not on screen long enough to make an impression. The dialogue doesn't flow very well, makes little effort to develop or explain things, so a lot of American Horror House felt very undercooked from a writing standpoint, and the bitching was so overdone that you wanted the characters doing the bitching to shut up fast. Story-wise, there is no better news, some of it drags but other parts felt improvised and erratic. There are an almost complete lack of horror and mystery elements, which hurt the movie significantly. The horror was predictable and atmosphere-less(sure the death scenes were gruesome but those aside there's not much to the horror). And it would have helped if the ghosts were more believable, you don't even believe that they are ghosts but instead it's oddly reminiscent of the Chamber of Horrors section in Madame Tussaud's but much less scary. American Horror House doesn't do well as a mystery either, more suspense, atmosphere and less predictability will have helped it and also that it wasn't so obvious to us too early who the person behind the killings was. There are cheaper movies out there than American Horror House, but the choppy editing, too bright lighting(one external review likened it to Hallmark/Lifetime quality and that is apt here, often it doesn't feel like it's a movie about horror houses and ghosts), and old-school effects that sometimes were okay but looked at other times comparatively dated to the rest of the movie's look cannot be ignored here. All in all, you can do with worse but American Horror House is one of those once-seen, quickly disposable movies(personal opinion of course). 3/10 Bethany Cox

Alright, well sure, this is was a TV movie, but still... I mean, couldn't they have had done is somewhat better than this? It was like watching a scary TV show for teenagers.The story is about some girls pledging to become sorority sisters and having to endure the typical pledge Hell night. But the house in which the sorority resides bears a sinister and dark secret, and the lady of the house plans to keep it that way.Indeed, well for a horror movie, be prepared to look long and far for anything even remotely scary in this movie - unless you are a very young viewer and is scared of your own shadow. There is simply nothing scary to be found here, and the story itself, well it was just so-so.As for the cast, well people were doing good enough jobs with their given roles, even Morgan Fairchild who, and no offense intended here, isn't really cut out for horror movies. But she did put on a convincing enough act here that managed to pull the attention and thoughts of daytime soap opera away from mind.The ghosts in the movie were nowhere even close to having anything ghostly or supernatural about them. They were merely regular people that popped up and disappeared again from time to time, oh, and with a bit of smudge on their faces. Yeah, if you are making a ghost movie, at least have the courtesy to actually have something that just resembles ghosts or haunts in the actual movie.If you are planning for an evening worth of entertainment with some good old scares and spooks, then you had better look elsewhere, because you will not find it in this teenage pseudo-horror movie. The movie is long and tedious to get through, and it is an uphill battle to make it to the end.I can't really recommend anything in particular about this movie which were to make anyone want to sit down and actually watch it. I watched it solely because it was available and it was within hands reach. My mistake, trust me...

Attempting to pledge a new sorority during a Halloween party, the new pledges find the event used as a recruiting session by the ghostly house-mother suffering under a malicious curse to possess the house and must find a way to stop it from going through.This one here was actually quite an entertaining and exceptionally fun entry. The main element of the many pluses that comes up here is the fact that this one uses a near-continuous amount of ghost action which keeps this one moving along at such a brisk pace and never really lets it up. The early ghost shots of the girl haunting the cellist in the practice room and appearing to the rejected pledge are pretty chilling scenes and definitely set up some creepy atmosphere when mixed with the actions of the cop investigating the disappearances inside the sorority to the girls going through the initiation ceremonies at the same time. These manifestations of the ghosts are more than enough to provide a dark atmosphere here that's based off the haunting encounters being quite fun while also giving this one some solid supernatural basis. This makes the shots of the ghosts possessing the different artifacts and chasing them for great moments here featuring the attack on the group in the attic where the bear costume continues the attack, the final ghost ambush on the detective and the different visions of the past tragedies from the child's murders to the original deaths of the different figures in the house's history really gather up into formidable and enjoyable scenes. Finally, the main segments where they go around and invade the party, whether through ghostly temptation or simply appearing solely to those aware of their presence but remaining to the other party guests, is incredibly fun and definitely lives up to it's spectacle showpiece by setting the turning and corrupting in motion as well as providing this with the thrilling and action of the chases along the house where it finally gives them the key to overcome them. When mixed together with the rather gory deaths that are thankfully not CGI but actual prosthetics, there's a lot to like here. These here are enough to hold off the few small problems with this, starting with the lame point here involving the cursed-to-remain storyline which certainly doesn't need to be there and is introduced so late as to be an afterthought. There's the usual bad CGI, but overall this one wasn't nearly atrocious and remained quite enjoyable.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and drug use.