Haunted (2014) Directed by Victor Salva

To a certain extent all horror movies are totally silly and implausible ones. Yet they can work out as something credible, by just creating its own world and realism, which is something this movie never succeeds at though.

This movie is absolutely ridicules, even by normal horror standards. Absolutely nothing about it ever works out as anything credible. You can praise the movie for at least trying to be original but simple fact it is that nothing really works out very well within the actual movie. Most of the stuff that happens in it feels far too random and I just can't call this horror a very scary or exciting one either.

Thing that's especially bad and annoying is that we as the viewers often know way more than any of the characters do. Things are being kept secret for the characters but yet those very same things get revealed to the viewers, very early on already. Once we know way more than a main character of a movie, that character often tends to come across as naive or even plain stupid at times and therefor really aren't any likable ones and it's hard to feel involved with them. It takes the longest time for them to figure things out and accept things for what they are, while we as the viewers already learned 20 minutes ago what is going on. I don't know why some movies still keep doing this. It continues to be an annoyance of mine with some horror movies.

The movie is already known under several different titles, which never is a good sing, so perhaps I simply should have known better. However, since director Victor Salva's name is attached to this movie, it still raises certain expectation. After all, this guy is not a bad horror director. Even his worst genre movies aren't terrible ones (granted that I have not seen all of them) but this movie might very well be his worst one, to date.

It's hard to latch onto anything in this movie. The characters aren't any solid or likable enough ones and the story feels far too random with all of its ludicrous events. It keeps coming up with new things and 'rules', which sounds like a good thing perhaps, since it keeps the movie surprising and diverse but it actually works out as something incredibly annoying. It feels all over the place, not just with its story but definitely also with all of its horror. There are too many different styles. The one moment it's a slasher, the next it's more of a psychological horror and the other it's throwing some haunted house ingredients into the mix. It's all a bit too much really and it feels like he movie should have made some better choices and some more cuts, to keep things more focused, engaging and to some extent more credible as well.

It's also bad and annoying to see how none of the actors act scared throughout the movie. Some absolutely terrible and freaky things happen to them, yet they never seem afraid for their lives or in true fear of anything or anyone. Even Tobin Bell's crazy hair doesn't freak them out! And speaking of which, it's really sad to see Bell in this movie. He definitely is the best actor out of the bunch but his high quality acting really doesn't match the low quality of this movie. At times I even thought I was watching an amateur project and I'm not exaggerating.

A disappointingly messy and ineffective horror movie from Victor Salva.

4/10

Watch trailer