Better Late Then Never

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

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.

When a relative passes, a man inherits her decrepit old mansion and coming to learn she believed it haunted sets out to prove it was simply a matter of unrecognizing everyday events around her unaware of a deadly secret lurking within its walls.This here turned out to be an incredibly dull and barely worthwhile entry. The main problem here, which just about ruins the film right off the bat, is the fact that the film's about a person's nature of being skeptical, a trait which means that every time something supposedly supernatural could happen it's always shot down as realistic instead of supernatural, a rather distressing fact made more damaging due to being presented as absolute fact with constant berating and mocking directed at those who think otherwise. This behavior, from the lead no less, makes it an almost unbearable act to get into the film from the beginning as being around such an irritating figure is hard to stand. That this is given to other characters, who each spend most of the time engaging in the same exact behavior throughout the entire film of making it attempt to be realistic rather than trying to emphasize the supernatural hauntings really makes the film's attempts at generating scares pretty worthless. The banging off-screen doors, whispering voices and moving objects to different locations that are being used for that purpose then don't mean anything when they occur since it's all pretty much ignored and explained, reducing their effectiveness long before how tame they are ruins the film in that manner, leaving this whole thing incredibly flawed with a damaging gimmick, lame scares and a boring pace which really kills off the few positive points it developed.Rated PG-13: Violence and Language.

When I first saw it on television, it was called The Haunting Of Bryan Becket. I like horror films and I thought that I would try this one as there have not been many lately that I have really enjoyed. I have to say, while not being a huge fan of Tom Arnold, he did put in a good solid performance in this film. Tim Daly was very good in the lead role and the movie itself had some genuinely creepy moments in it. It did not go for gore but for good atmospheric chills instead. The storyline was a little disappointing though but the camera work and script were solid enough. The only thing I have a gripe about, and this is not a huge thing, was I thought the ending was a little confusing. Not great but it it was enjoyable. The kind of movie where you grab a bowl of popcorn, sit back and relax.

The movie begins and constructs itself with a pretty decent structure. It often shocks you with a sudden unexpected horror tricks and you've to spare those scenes even if your mind says that its a cliché. Suddenly, the movie ends with an epic conclusion of absurdity, leaving ton of unanswered questions, while you end up convincing yourself that," OK! its not a mystery, its a bad story". What happened to him? is he dead? is he knocked down? what happened to his wife? whats the purpose of the psychic girl if she didn't prove anything? is he imagining his mother repenting for her sins or as in her soul regrets her sins? A decent ending would be him crying in front of her wife, emotionally broke and showing some respect for the world and not being a jerk, who sees the world as a skeptic. But no the writer had to crown a masterpiece with a puddle of mud to create some kind of mystery which is out of fashion in horror movies these days. It could have been an 8 movie but below 6 now, and that's the price you pay by spoiling a perfect story.

Some reviews express disappointment about the ending of this movie; I disagree. This is without a doubt a ghost story, but it also explores human emotion about traumatic events. It's not run of the mill. It was a refreshing change from the usual shock horror type movie about ghosts. I don't know why people can't understand the ending, it's quite simple, his mother wanted him to have the house so she could find forgiveness for her abuses. The sunny picnic expresses this. If you want the usual type of haunting movie then the ending would be disappointing but I think it was a very suitable conclusion for this movie, it all made sense in the end, there were no clichéd fright scenes and the ending did not have the usual shock then an attempt to procure a sequel. Just a simple reason for the haunting in the first place. I really enjoyed this movie, it's not a blockbuster, but much better than Paranormal Activity which does not come to any conclusions about why the haunting took place, I'll bet there is a sequel to that movie. The Skeptic stands on it's own as a complete work beginning, middle and end. Sweet.