Bethany (2017)
9/10
Really enjoyable and thrilling effort
7 December 2017
Having inherited her former house, a woman and her husband move in where she is immediately assaulted by the ghosts of her tormented past with her mother which begins to affect her relationship with those around her forcing them to help her find a way to get past her inner demons.

This here was quite the enjoyable haunted house effort. One of the finer points involved with this one is the intensely intricate and involved backstory that has a lot to like here. The complicated relationship with the mother, with her incessant belief in pageant work above all other forms of contact or interaction, forcing her to practice and prepare all the while turning everything around her into a potential way to keep her moving forward in her career which gives this a strong and healthy backstory that goes a long way to making this one engaging. The flashbacks to them going through the motions of preparing for the next pageant with them practicing the piano or applying makeup gives this one a healthy starting point for the later horror-based scenes to spring from strongly, as the hallucinations that emerge from these scenes such as the ghostly mother playing alongside her or the hair that she pulls out of her body while brushing herself are insanely creepy scenes. Other big horror scenes, from the freakout at the dinner table to the figure she sees around the house after getting out of the shower means this one has a very strong series of scenes that really play up the atmosphere within the house. That this one plays more as a psychological breakdown more than a traditional ghost story with these scenes is where this one really gets interesting as it moves along into the gripping psychologically-gripping final half where the full exploits of those around her give this a rather strong tone that keeps this one in truly dark realms. The revelations that occur here are quite striking and really move this into rather intense areas with the truth about her history and what's inside the house to the great scenes with them inside the walls of the house to finally put this to rest with some tense ideas. That this provides some creepy action inside the darkened corridors deep inside the house alongside the fine revelations of the past makes this one a really strong and potent ending that scores nicely. As well as some really nice realistic-looking gore when it needs to, these here really make this one fun enough to hold out over the few minor problems featured here. The main issue is the slow-burn pace that really takes a while to get going, as the lack of action and turning everything around into being her fault means this one does take awhile to become enjoyable. That this one is more psychological rather than overt in its hauntings means that very few of these actually scare which does go against the theme it's built upon. However, these aren't as bad as the more impactful positives.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.
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