About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

A solid but by-the-numbers haunted house pic.

Pros

• Interesting characters
• Has a couple of nice twists
• Stylish use of faux vintage newsreels

Cons

• Confusing plot
• Modest budget
• Bad dubbing

Description

• Starring Ana Torrent, Francisco Boira, Hector Colome, Rocío Muñoz, Francisco Casares
• Directed by Elio Quiroga
• Rated R by the MPAA for some violent images.
• DVD release date: September 28, 2010 (at Blockbuster August 6)

Guide Review - 'The Haunting' Movie Review

The Fangoria FrightFest showcases eight independent horror movies that individually might not get the exposure that the Fangoria name brings. One of the films receives a theatrical release (based on a fan vote), and the rest go straight to DVD and video-on-demand.

The Plot

Francesca (Ana Torrent) is a pediatrician with a newborn child who moves into an old abandoned country home with her husband. The house, it turns out, was owned by a now-deceased bishop who used to have a hand in verifying supernatural phenomena. As soon as the family movies in, Francesca begins to hear strange noises and see ghostly images, and only a crazy old lady recently released from a sanitarium believes her. Is Francesca losing her mind? Her husband seems to think so. A local priest holds the key to uncovering the mystery that lies within the house's attic and basement, but first Francesca has to convince him to help her.

The End Result

The Haunting (AKA No-Do: The Beckoning) begins with a series of seemingly unconnected scenes that immediately throws viewers into a state of confusion: a '40s newsreel about supernatural phenomena, an old woman in a coma for 60 years, a doctor baptizing dead babies.

It's a disorienting opening that takes a while to clarify, making it hard to truly get into the muddled story.

Not helping the plot is the fact that it's peppered with haunted house cliches: things that go bump in the night, pale little ghost girls, crazy but knowledgeable old people warning of certain doom, a heroine who people think is crazy for saying she saw ghosts, recorded voices that can be deciphered played backwards, ghosts giving cryptic messages when all they have to do is SPIT IT OUT. That said, there are enough little twists to the standard formula to keep things interesting. In particular, the intriguingly flawed characters of Francesca and Father Miguel (Hector Colome) are haunted by things other than ghosts, adding refreshing depth and emotion to the storyline.

The cast is solid, led by veteran Spanish actress Ana Torrent (Tesis), but the production value is noticeably below the level of more well-known Spanish horror, like The Orphanage. It has a made-for-TV look, aided by direction that doesn't seem to aggressively go after scares. (It should be said that the bad English-language dubbing doesn't help the film's atmosphere at all.) However, director Elio Quiroga does make interesting use of faux vintage newsreels to provide back story, splicing them in with modern footage to convey a convergence of past and present, as history comes back to haunt the characters.

The Skinny

• Acting: C (I'm sure the original Spanish acting is fine, but the American dubbing is terrible.)
• Direction: C (Lacks genuine scares.)
• Script: C- (Confusing and takes too long to iron out the various plot elements, although some of the characters are intriguing.)
• Gore/Effects: C (Made-for-TV-level CGI effects.)
• Overall: C

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the distributor. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.