Strictly average movie

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

You may not have known that Luis Bunuel had a son, Juan Luis, and that he too had a filmmaking career.Any mystery as regards the source of this ignorance would be instantly dispelled by a viewing of his rare, early '70s haunted house movie, "Expulsion of the Devil" - which also features an appearance by a young Gerard Depardieu.You see, on the evidence of this film, the younger Bunuel is deservedly obscure. It is possibly the dullest haunted house movie I have ever seen.The set-up is typical: a family move in to some old house and spooky stuff starts to happen. Well, it's not really that spooky, at least not the way Bunuel Jr. shoots it: two or three times some stuff starts flying around.I understand that French movies are more concerned with mood than plot. This one has no mood. Juan Luis couldn't direct to save his life.There are some weird developments later in the movie: a camera crew comes to stay, and apparently, so do some primary school-aged girls. What are they doing there? It might have been explained, or it might not have been. Writing this sentence will be the last energy I ever expend thinking about this movie.

Where was this one hiding? A French art horror film about poltergeists that really delivers the goods on most fronts, even though it's apparent the budget isn't the highest. A French family (chain-smoking mother, annoying child, hard-working father, moody teenage girl) move into a huge creepy mansion and almost right away strange things begin to happen. The teenage girl draws a picture of the mansion that looks a lot different than it actually is. A tin of paint falls over in the kitchen. The boy's toys are broken by someone unseen. During the night most of the windows in the building are violently destroyed by an unknown presence throwing stones. The family are baffled and think the locals have something against them...that is until a table rises up into the air, smashes its way into the house, and destroys a room. In fact, we the audience are clued in on what's happening more than the family, because there's something strange going on with daughter Sophie. At first it seems that she's some kind of telekinetic-type, but it all could be something more to do with something in the house that's either using her or possessing her. It's never really made clear anyway, but by the way Sophie's reflection seems to be moving when Sophie isn't, something aint right.Eventually, when a lecherous visitor gets attacked by kitchen appliances after commenting on Sophie 'starting to become a woman', a television crew are called in to document the weird goings on, with the family moving out for a while. Initially, the crew don't find anything particularly strange happening, save for some old rope left in the boy's bed, but when Sophie reappears, having hitchhiked all the way back there, soundman Gerard Depardieu goes into a trance and plunges his hand into a pan of soup...French onion soup of course!Other things happen but it's not fair to recount every scare scene in case you actually want to go out and watch the thing. It's like the Robert Wise film The Haunting with regards to all the paranormal stuff centred around one person, and like that film doesn't rely on gore to get the chills in. In fact, there's bit of this film have turned up in other horror fiction, especially the 'ball' bit from The Changeling, and really especially Stephen King's work, like the telekinetic girl's house destroyed by stones in the book Carrie, or the sexual ghost coming on to a guy then revealing itself as something horrible in The Shining! There's also a lot of similarities between Salem's Lot and Mario Bava's Black Sabbath while I'm on the subject, and the spider/baby thing from Spider Labyrinth turns up in the Dark Tower books. Don't tell me he doesn't watch these things - he fully admitted getting the idea for the Dark Tower from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!Back to the film - A couple of sudden deaths come out of nowhere near the end, and you do have a Haunting-like ending...or no ending at all...it is a French art film after all. I guess it's in how you interpret it. Very good though. That's I'm seeking them all out - to find films like this. Recommended!

I saw this movie in its German version on TV when I was about 19 yrs old. The time to watch a movie (which you do not know absolutely), especially a horror movie, was optimal - as it was late at night. I did not have any idea that the TV broadcast such a disturbing film ever and expected just any entertainment but... Goodness, I was shaken with horror and probably did hardly sleep that night, at least left the lights on to have a short nap. This movie may prove slow and yet inflicts the deepest surprise with horror far beyond the Hollywood makings. It is a genius film, absolutely underestimated and obviously hard to get or even see. Since 30 (!!!) years I have tried to get hold of it since but did not succeed. Worth watching absolutely!

Directing debut for Juan Bunuel, son of revered filmmaker Luis Bunuel, is a disturbing but hollow, unsatisfying thriller about a haunted house in the French countryside. Married couple with two kids move into the dilapidated manor, and are rather slow to discover there are spirits afoot and they want the humans out. Film wasn't exhibited Stateside for years, though one can imagine Steven Spielberg seeing this and getting the idea for his production "Poltergeist"; the films share similar story points, though this one has no humorous undermining. Some spooky moments and a haunting finale can't really make it worthwhile. Ultimately, it's just a little too heavy and dense. *1/2 from ****