For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

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

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Groan. Here's another yawner with so many loud bangs and "this is the time to freak out or jump" cues (the soundtrack is quite noisy and never- ending), it doesn't have time to breathe. Slaves were supposedly rescued by a stationmaster considered a hero in Southern history, but the film points out how this wasn't the case. A taxidermist by trade, it was told down through generations he helped provide refuge and escape for slaves, only with help by a ghost named Mr. Gordy (talking to a child, the daughter of lead Abigail Spencer) do we learn the real truth. An ancestor of Mr. Gordy, the stationmaster did some horrible misdeeds with his taxidermy skills. With Chad Michael Murray (of One Tree Hill) as Spencer's husband (he's all complacent and okay with his daughter's talking to Mr. Gordy, for whom she's the only one who sees him) and the sexy-as-hell Katee Sackoff as Spencer's sister (escaping bad relationships with men and sober from the drink) in the cast, all eventually dealing with the ghosts of the slaves of Pine Mountain and the evil spirit of the stationmaster, with frequent visits to a well where a special hidden room reveals some unpleasant examples of taxidermy in secret.Cicely Tyson is made up to almost resemble a corpse, her eyes discolored and for whatever reason she has horse teeth in her mouth. I was clueless as to why she's made up this way. Her character had relatives that vanished and were never seen again; later, the film shows us where they've been "kept" for quite some time. This is one of those unnecessary characters that knows a child knows. It is like that scene in The Shining when Scatman Crothers addresses "the shine" with Danny Lloyd in the kitchen; Tyson seems to know that the little girl has the ability to see what many others can't. It is basically what Sackoff told the child earlier, but Spencer tries to fend off their embracing of this gift.The film commits fully to "ghost fades" and constant appearances of apparitions popping up practically in every damn scene! Sackoff deserves better than to be lying on the floor with thread strings protruding from her mouth, needled to the roof of an abandoned trailer. Surprising to see a talent like Spencer in something abysmal as this "depiction of a true story". She sees her dead mother and has a "gift" where dead people are visible to her (as they are for the kid and Sackoff) all the time, as pills seem to help very little. Chad just kind of goes with the flow, not all that concerned that the women in his life see dead people. It is all nonchalant and meh to him, although he does rise to the occasion when his daughter's life is in jeopardy. There is a Baptist version of an exorcism (obviously there's *got* to be an exorcism, right?) that does little to help stop the ghosts from hanging around. You do get to see the child finally receive help riding her bike as Mr. Gordy gives her a push. Yeah. And what's up with that title? Sheesh. Why tie yourself to an even worse ghost film? The direction is too busy with all the ghostly visits and warnings of the boogeyman to tell a story in a way that feels like editing ADHD style.You get near drowning in a bathtub, puked out maggots and roaches, rotted corpses, sack-head racists performing taxidermy on a taxidermist, slave corpses in a well, slave ghosts leading a way to their current resting place, a ghoul whose hideous face is stitched to a potato sack, and numerous spectres unafraid to hide themselves. This is a lot of effects, both in what you see and hear, but it is all tiresome instead of scary.

A young family moves into a historic Georgia home which is being haunted by a ton of spirits. Lisa (Spencer) has the gift of seeing ghosts since she was a child and has passed it down to her child Heidi (Lind). Heidi is communicating with a spirit named Mr. Gordy (Grant James) and even though Lisa has the gift, she doesn't want it and refuses to believe her daughter. Lisa's sister Joyce (Sackhoff) is annoyed by this as the houses' past is tied to the hiding of slaves. The movie takes on a mystery angle as the family and audience isn't sure if Mr. Gordy's spirit is friendly or evil. Connecticut in Georgia? OK, this in name sequel only is based on a true story, but it's hard to tell what parts that might be. This is certainly watchable as a supernatural spook show especially early on as shadows and things move in the background. Young actress Emily Alyn Lind as Heidi turns in a very strong performance. All though the movie is competently made the movie never really rises above mediocre chills and the mystery angle just isn't that compelling. In the end it serves as a watchable time waster.

The movie is frightening, yes. It is also somewhat original and has good twists. That is okay.Main characters are real mess unfortunately. To say it very simply, every tree minutes or so they change their opinions. One character sees ghosts and believes their warnings, but the other four do not. Surprisingly this changes constantly.In one moment the aunt is the single person who believes in "gift". After some time she seems not to care about the ghost but mother believes the haunting. Then the daughter manages to find some dead because of visions and warns the others but not aunt nor mother seems to believe a word of her. The father believes, believes not, then believes...What a mess. What a horrible mess of the plot! In the end this is not a story, but more or less a freak show of loosely connected scares with hardly anything in between. It is sort of mass murder zombie ghost redneck torture slavery genealogy revenge spiritual porn or something. It is just too confusing to be really good.

I thought this movie was one of the best 'horror' movies I have seen. It has to be made clear at this point that this is not a 'slasher' movie, in fact there is no slashing in it at all. Hence there wasn't much 'gore' and blood spilling, but that is not to say there wasn't any horrifying imagery, actually it was quite memorable and imaginative in that regard. There wasn't much new in terms of scares but there were plenty and the makers put great effort in keeping you on edge throughout by keeping you guessing what would come next. The acting was entirely acceptable and although I was worried at first that certain characters would get annoying they turned it around by the end. The two things the movie managed to achieve extremely well were atmosphere and historical context. At the end of the day even the best horror movies rarely compare well to great movie from other genres and generally only work if you 'let yourself believe' as such this movie achieved everything it could want to achieve. It's fits well onto a list with similarly well executed films such as The Awakening, Silent Hill 1, The Orphan and Sinister and was much better than a lot of the uninspired rest. Btw, yes, the naming was silly and almost made me not watch this but that doesn't take away anything from the actual movie itself. Also it didn't feel like a 'based on a true story for the sake of it' kind of movie and I was surprised, but din't really care to find out at the end.