Summary

A dog watches the haunting of its master.

This film is truly horrible, in many ways. The dog is mistreated by the owner and is in peril from the supernatural entity as well, whilst you could argue that the owner only does this as he knows he is getting sicker and sicker and is lashing out at the things around him, it is hard to watch.

Moreover, whilst the idea of having the film be from the dog’s viewpoint may seem novel, it quickly becomes a bunch of haunted house/possession sub-genre tropes that we have seen before, the fact it is from a different point of view does not change that.

The shorter than average run time helps somewhat to make this film more palatable as you don’t have to hear and see the dog’s distress for too long, but even then it is hard to get through.

Overall, as someone who likes animals I found this film to be incredibly hard to get through and if I wasn’t reviewing it would likely have left.

1.5/5

Pros.

It tries to do something new with the shifted perspective

The dog is wonderful

Cons.

It is upsetting

The owner treats the dog horribly

The ending is depressing

It repeats sub-genre tropes

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Summary

Stephen Soderbergh tries to do something new with the haunted house film.

So would I call this film a horror? No

Was it marketed as a horror film? Yes

It is essentially a drama film with supernatural aspects, it is a drama film in so much as it is about a family that is fraying at the scenes and that interpersonal drama takes up a lot of the film’s bandwidth. The supernatural element comes from the fact that their house is haunted, but the ghost does not behave like a typical ghost or poltergeist in these sort of films there is something different about it.

One thing I will say is that the film has a lot of scenes of drugging drinks, which makes for uncomfortable viewing at times. There is a particular scene with a large amount of sexual threat that will stay with you after the credits roll, and is probably the most unpleasant and in a sense scariest thing about the film.

The twist at the end of the film is fairly predictable but does feel satisfying when it is revealed and it does recontextualise a lot of the film in an interesting way that encourages a rewatch.

Overall, a smart if at times a little uncomfortable kind of film.

4/5

Pros

It is smart

It a decent pay off

It is well paced

It focuses on atmosphere

Cons.

The sexual assault theme feels a bit much at times

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Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A haunted swimming pool, yes you read that right we have reached the bottom of the barrel folks.

There was some potential here if you played it for laughs then maybe something so goofy as a haunted swimming pool could work, but nope its incredibly serious. Essentially this film is about a group of ghosts that hang around a swimming pool that used to be a magical creatures lair, but said creature needs a sacrifice in order to work.

This film is the very worst of Blumhouse, it is not clever, there is nothing of substance to it, and it feels like it lazily made on the cheap with no thought going into it. The film barely has any scares at all and what it does have are cheap jump scares.

Everyone in this deserves so much better, I feel really bad that after Kerry Condon started to break into Hollywood this is the drek she gets signed to, she needs better management.

Overall, lame and they knew it was hence them dumping it in January,

1.5/5

Pros.

It has an interesting premise

It is short

Cons.

They do nothing with it

It feels like it goes on forever

It isn’t scary

It is far too serious  

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2.5/5      

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Some teens summon and otherworldly entity and it ends badly for them, you know the routine.

This is nothing new and certainly won’t set the world on fire, but it does manage to develop a fairly creepy atmosphere and land a few good scares during its runtime. Solidly watchable.

I think the big issue for me with this film is how formulaic it is, truly if you have ever seen a film like this before then you will be able to predict what happens when and even what characters will say, it takes no chances and does not bother trying to reinvent the format. Moreover, the film is quite clearly low budget, no shame in that of course, and as such doesn’t have the best visual effects. This could have easily handled and done in a way to maximise the scares and also leave us guessing, however, that is not what we get. Instead there are a lot of close us and drawn out sequences of this film’s creature that look straight out of a videogame from over a decade ago.

The big draw of this film is seeing horror icons Lin Shaye and Robert Englund interact together on screen and we do get that to a degree and they certainly both help this film from being even worse though I would say they are underused. The teens who are the film’s main focus are so dull and uninteresting that it is hard to feel anything for them as such you become detached from their struggle.

Overall, Shaye and Englund do their best to salvage this generic film and they do manage to make it watchable.

Pros.

Shaye

Englund

The atmosphere

Cons.

It is generic

It is predictable

The teen leads are instantly forgettable   

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