By Melissa Antoinette Garza
The film opens with footage from 1973. A group of paranormal psychologists conduct a séance to reach their former colleague Charles Reamer. They call the project The Charles Experiment.
A group of college students decide to recreate the same experiment with the hopes to manifest the spirit into the here and now. Patrick (Tom Felton), Greg (Luke Pasqualino), Lydia (Julianna Guill) and her boyfriend Ben (Sebastian Stan) begin the séance. Patrick is obsessed with proving the existence of the paranormal. As they begin the experiment, the table moves. Lydia believes that Greg moved it, but then everything in the room begins moving and the lights go out. It becomes extremely apparent that The Charles Experiment was a success.
Later, Ben and his new girlfriend Kelly (Ashley Greene) move into a home owned by Kelly’s mother. Though they are able to live there, they also are supposed to watch the place and ensure nothing happens to it. All of the houses are in a subdivision that was just constructed. Their only neighbors are Mike (Rick Gomez) and his daughter Maggie (Anna Clark).
Immediately upon moving in, Ben notices that the counters have burn marks on them. As the place is brand new, they think it’s odd but don’t think too much of it. That night, Kelly wakes up and notices that all the doors are open. Frightened, they call the police who reassure them by saying some of the kids are messing with the empty homes. Strange unexplained occurrences continue to happen.
Mike asks Kelly to watch their dog Pepper. Pepper ends up getting sick and subsequently dying while in her care. Maggie believes the house killed her dog and tells Kelly as much.
Ben begins getting urgent emails from Patrick warning him he is in danger. He sends him a video showing their failed attempt at containing the spirit. Even though Ben knows that the experiment he was a part of triggered all of the paranormal events, he does not tell Kelly anything about it. She believes he is as confused as she is.
Mold begins growing everywhere in the house and Kelly’s clothing ends up trashed without explanation. Kelly decides she is no longer staying in the home and leaves, but returns because she doesn’t want to disappoint her parents. Though convinced the house is haunted, they attempt to fight whatever it is.
The saddest aspect about this movie is that the acting is actually quite good and the concept is interesting. It had potential, but the execution fails miserably. The CGI mold looks awful and more than anything mold isn’t scary. Nothing that happens is scary.
There are events that should have added tension. For example, when all the doors opened it could have been a frightening moment, but the way in which it was filmed failed to build any momentum. It was just something that occurred. Even Ben’s reaction isn’t one of fear. He simply asks, “Why are the doors open?” There should have been passion in his voice and fear in his heart when he uttered those words. Instead, it was a simple question.
When the actual entity is seen, it’s the typical gray being that is seen over and over again nowadays. It emerges like the girl from The Ring (2002) and looks like the boy from The Grudge (2004). I hate those gray bastards. They’re not scary. They never have been. Demons, entities, villains and ghosts can be terrifying; and it isn’t that difficult to accomplish. I remember in Poltergeist II (1986), Kane was simply an old man dressed in black. His voice crackled when he talked. His eyes were wide. He still scares me. There was no CGI, no gray make-up, no black holes where the eyes should be. NO! It was simple but frightened people to the core! In the made for TV movie, Don’t Go to Sleep (1982), a young child was the ghost. She looked normal aside from a little light that shined on her. It was her sweet voice and sinister side that made her scary. Mentally messing with her sister so that she would kill her family was superb. The ending scene where the ghost shows up at her mother’s bed and so simply and sweetly says, “Hello Mommy,” is creepy as hell! Where is that innovation today? Where is that understanding of the human psyche, that grasp on what scares and what pulls the audience in? In The Changeling (1980), a ball goes down the stairs as the lead character just watches it. There’s silence and tension that is built. It’s genius in its simplicity, and that’s lost.
Everything is so overdone nowadays and the basics have been lost. I don’t know anyone who fears a woman or child who is part CGI and gray. It just isn’t scary. It’s stupid.
Now, for all intents and purposes this was a semi low budget movie. It had approximately $17 million to utilize which in this day and age isn’t much, but when you look at films like Insidious (2010) which was decent and only had 1.5 million to spend, I feel very little sympathy.
What is aggravating is that horror ends up with a bad reputation because of films like this. Critics watch this garbage and then label the genre as mindless crap when in fact horror can be intelligent, interesting, and more importantly it can invoke fear in the viewer.
Sadly nowadays, more of these movies are made than the ones that are actually provoking and captivating.
Obviously, I disliked this movie immensely. The ending is absurd. The logic is ludicrous and over-explained.
Scared Stiff Rating: 1/10
