One of my all time favorites.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The film opens and builds the characters of three teen girls in a nice scene where they are carving pumpkins, a nostalgia scene for me. There is then a teen party where the guys discuss the best female costume: Slutty Pirate vs Slutty Dorothy. Finally in mixed groups they discuss an urban legend about a haunted house where your get your money back in you complete it. Having no idea where it is located, a group of four drive around and find "House of Purgatory." Inside, the place is like a regular haunted house, however as they go deeper it becomes a personalized Dante's Inferno.The film was okay. Sound track was decent. Didn't rely on jump scares, but crafted a story. Being ruined by Catholicism, I know purgatory is a place one goes to burn off their venial sins, as we pray to Mary and the Father in a 10:1 ratio,before strolling into heaven. However in this story, that is not the case. We are looking at mortal sins, and teens are being tortured for things in their life that wasn't their fault, i.e. one girl being molested as a child. This is more akin to Hell than Purgatory in my book, but I understand Hell House and House of Hell titles are far too common and on the cliché side.Personally I think the punishment should have suited the individual's transgression. Now looking beyond my theological dissection, it was fairly decent, with decent "B" film acting and as previously stated, I loved the opening scene.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

This film starts off as promising. There is some good dialogue and the characters are generally interesting and believable. Then somehow several of the characters are just dropped as our four mains (not necessarily the most interesting of the characters introduced either) decide to ditch their party and go find a haunted house.Once this happens things slowly start to go downhill, not only does the ditching of these other characters make their scenes at the beginning completely pointless (why not just start at the haunted house?), but it means that things that looked like they were going to come into play later actually don't. So we get stuck with the four leads as they go through this house, and even that can't hold together long.There is just no pacing in this movie, it builds you up and then lets you down. I did quite like their approach on what is really scary in life, but most of the time it doesn't seem like the characters should really be going through what they are, which again could make sense, but the ending undoes that too. So overall this film feels like it is chasing its own tail, almost as if it had two completely different writers that had completely opposing ideas about what film they wanted to make. There is some good here, but it is buried underneath a pile of confusion and mistaken misdirection.

I will have to say I'm a sucker for "haunted house" stories. I was zipping through the menu for On-Demand and found this entry into that genre. It seems an urban legend is being passed from town to town about a legendary haunted house that is SO scary, the managers will actually give YOU money back for each floor you complete! So, off go four friends (leaving a Halloween party) in search of this house. What they find is way more than what they bargained for.First--and foremost--I would like to compliment all involved with this film. They have proved that "cheap" doesn't have to mean awful. The viewer can easily tell this was made on a shoestring budget, BUT the direction, the makeup, and the writing push this attempt to the forefront. Each minor detail is "covered", i.e. if you're supposed to go up floors, why do you start the haunted house going down? Now, the reasons may not always be plausible, but we all know how horror movies work. I thought the acting was much better than average, especially with the caca usually attached to these films. The weakest character was the "skeleton" man (he just wasn't creepy or menacing enough for my tastes), but (thankfully) you do not see much of him. I recommend this effort. It certainly isn't going to win any Oscars, but this installment into the haunted house genre is leaps and bounds better than most. Rated "R" for brief violence and some naked backsides.

Could have been..but no.Its like watching a movie in slow motion. Nobody is communicating and they just wonder silently on their own. U can almost predict exactly what will happen. We tried to have a good time watching this. But I think Id rather stand an hour in the snow..naked. The actors have been made ridiculously stupid (i hope,or the just suck at acting). Couple of times it looked like something maybe could actually save the poor movie,,but just disappointment again. So please..make better use of your time. Because we already lost ours. Even if you wanna watch some "bad horror" movie just for fun..This will not cut it, Merry Christmas everyone.. Except the people who made this movie!!