Purely Joyful Movie!

Perfectly adorable

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The acting in this movie is really good.

With their teenage son undergoing cancer treatment the Campbell family move into a creepy Victorian mansion nearer to the hospital in order to cut down on the travelling. Soon creepy things start to happen. In fact lots of spooky things happen, too much & too soon in the movie. Sadly this means any scare factor soon loses it's power & it becomes somewhat cliché & predictable. Acting & special effects are reasonable. One of the highlights is the revelation of many corpses inside the house. There is much variation in reviews for this film on here, but to rate it 1/10 is as ludicrous as awarding it 10/10. As haunted house movies go it is reasonably good but certainly not a classic.

This movie was OK, but not near as powerful as the original.I may be biased, but I absolutely loved the "A Haunting" pilot that this movie is very loosely based on.Unfortunately there's very little of the original story that is used in this movie adaptation.The original documentary was quite believable and creepy in its own right. This adaptation is typical of horror of today. I admit it's scary in parts and there are plenty of jumpy scenes and great graphics, but very little of what made the original story creepy made it into this script.I won't go into all the differences. It's as though the writers watched the original but decided they had to create a crazy back story that gives reason to all the strange activity, not realizing that the mystery of the original story was more believable.It would have been better to have simply named it something else and not said it was based on any true story at all, but I think they believe it sells better if people think it's true.Typical Hollywood. When they say "based on a true story" it's probably got 5% of the original in it.Nevertheless, it's a fairly good horror story, but if you want the real story, look for the pilot to the "A Haunting" series from 2005. It was actually called "A Haunting in Connecticut." It's still one of my favorite haunted stories.

This movie is an average when compared to other horror movies due to a slight difference. The difference is that it is based on a true story and it is given to the viewer to decide whether to believe it or not. So if you want to get scared and think that true stories are the right factor then grab a bowl of snacks and enjoy the ride!It should also be noted that the main character of the movie is also different in that he is suffering from cancer. Usually horror movies do not deal with this sort of extra qualities in their main character. So if you're looking for an originality in this movie I have listed all that original it can get. There is nothing more to the movie if you are a horror fan.So enjoy the Cliché!

This is my favorite ghost horror movie, a story where the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut so teenager Matt Campbell (Kyle Gallner) could be closer to his cancer treatments. They soon discover that their new home used to be a funeral parlor, and Matt finds himself seeing images and apparitions involving a young boy who had connections to the spiritual world. As a result, the dark past of the house and the lingering supernatural beings eventually unleashes a series of terrifying events on the innocent family. Based on the events of a true story, Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe wrote a very interesting and captivating screenplay for this movie that interweave the main plot of the house's supernatural residents and the subplot of Matt's cancer treatments very well, providing us with a unique and compelling feature. Peter Cornwell gave solid direction for the movie and the acting was believable and on-the-spot - no off-the-wall jokes, campy dialog or overzealous screams you usually see in low to medium budget horror flicks. Robert J. Kral's music score is very eerie and the visual effects were just right, nothing over-the-top. This movie, though a supernatural fiction based only loosely on real events, is more reality-based than fantasy, for it details the suffering of Matt's cancer to the unending faith and hope that parents Sara Campbell (Virginia Madsen) and Peter Campbell (Martin Donovan) have for Matt's recovery. The ghostly images that flashes before Matt's eyes added tension and horror to the story that blended in well with the cancer drama, which also sends Matt off his rocker a bit, scaring those around him including brother Billy (Ty Wood) and cousins Wendy (Amanda Crew) and Mary (Sophi Knight). In addition, the fatherly character of Reverend Popescu (Elias Koteas) tries to help Matt with his pessimistic outlook in life and his torturing paranormal experiences, which I thought was a touching element. There are also several jumpy moments as well when apparitions appear out of no where, reminding you that you are watching a ghost movie.In addition to this film's solid plot, I like the fact that the story elements just flow naturally, not creating these confusing twists and unexplainable plot holes that leave the audience bewildered and perplexed throughout the movie. My only minor issue I have with the movie was that a few of the flashbacks and ghostly sequences just appeared on-cue, creating very little suspense. But overall, it's a real entertaining movie that is highly recommended for both drama and horror movie fans. Grade A