This is How Movies Should Be Made

Load of rubbish!!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Someone included this film on a list called "Modern-Day Imperialist Capitalist Propaganda". No joke. But I assure you there is nothing here remotely imperialist or political even. Bolivian mushrooms aren't a toy, they are to be avoided or at least used under supervision. All the rage among film fans.It's just an average haunted house flick. The set-up is actually fairly solid, but the movie gets a bit tiresome by the half-way point, and then simply boring in its grand finale, with silly cliche scenes of Latino psychics trying to ward off the evil demons.I doubt the film-makers understand autism. The autistic kid is never spooked by anything, whereas real autistic kids are very easily spooked and do not feel comfortable in new surroundings or strange goings-on, especially on their own. And who the hell leaves an autistic child to roam in a desert by themselves? It's very convenient for the writer to make the kid autistic so he could prevent him from telling everyone what's going on. Kind of a cheap plot-device if you ask me.

Who is Greg McLean? Who gave him money to make that movie and allowed him to write the script himself? This is not a horror movie, unless you are younger than 10 years, maybe. It's an awful mess of lame ideas copied shamelessly from genre classics and mixed together into a superficial esoteric story convoluted by unbelievable family drama.Why did actors like Bacon and Mitchell do this job? Bored to death? Out of money? The acting is the only thing in this movie that made me give it more than 1 star. The director botched it big time on all levels of movie making. The pacing was awful, actually nothing happened until the very last 15 minutes, and even that went down the drain. The whole family drama stuff felt artificial and out of place, this family faced so many problems and in the end a supernatural experience brings them back together...well, just BS.There was no tension in the movie, ever. Besides people "acting like you and me" by sitting in dark rooms intentionally while weird sounds come from the attic, the movie constantly rubbed everything in the face of the audience. I always knew what was going on or to come next, as the movie had just told me before it happened. There was no mystery in it at all. The parts where they looked up everything on the internet in seconds - finding fully fledged websites about their specific (oh sure) problems that looked like an advertising agency had designed them... The whole Anasazi demons mumbojumbo being stretched out until you just didn't want to wait until they finally appear. When the old healer lady entered the house I had a last spark of hope that finally now hell would break loose...well, not really. Not at all. The whole thing was a letdown and felt like it was made for a very young audience. Nothing happens, people do scream a few times, one get's bitten by the neighbours dog, two others get a few minor cuts from flying glass shards. That's all! Horror doesn't mean blood, but come on - those demons were as evil and frightening as an old hag on the street.You don't need to be a cineast or a professional film critic to know that this movie was crap. If you find it entertaining, well, blessed is the simple mind. If you say this movie scared you a bit, you should never go outside except in bright sunlight. And even then your own shadow could make your heart stop.Mr. Mclean is a lousy writer (actually more sort of a cribber) and a mediocre director. I didn't see any promising talent here that would make me want to see his next opus. This movie is a total waste of time, unless you need some illustrative material about how not to do it.

This movie is a good movie, but not great; it is by no means unique or anything in that aspect, but it is worth the watch. I watched it with my good friend & he pointed out that it is good. I personally am not frightened by pretty much anything, so this didn't do that for me, but at the same time I recognize & acknowledge that the story line is good, and the acting and just plain movie overall are all good. Don't expect it to win an award, but it's worth your time if you're into horror; Even more if you're not.

Strange things begin to plague a Los Angeles family after a fun vacation. Peter (Kevin Bacon) and his wife Bronny (Radha Mitchell) begin sharing their home with daughter Stephanie (Lucy Fry) and autistic son Mikey (David Mazour) with some inexplicable events like water turning on, footstep sounds in the attic and mysterious hand prints about the home. It is believed they brought back a malignant spirit from their trip to the Grand Canyon. Or is it a dark entity from hell causing Mikey's erratic behavior?Greg McLean co-writes and directs this tense supernatural horror piece. Some eerie special effects fueled by fear. Bacon's talent seems a bit wasted. Also in the cast: Paul Reiser, Trian Long Smith, Ilza Rosario and Alma Martinez.