The Haunting of Pendle Hill (2022) User Reviews

It will lull you to sleep...

[paul_haakonsen · 2/10 · 11 May 2022]

Who would have thought that a haunting could put you to sleep?

Talk about a swing and a miss of a horror movie from writer and director Richard John Taylor.

Granted, when I sat down to watch the 2022 horror movie "The Haunting of Pendle Hill", then I had never heard about the movie. And the low rating that the movie has harvested here on IMDb didn't exactly have me all thrilled and excited. Yet, I still opted to watch the movie. Why? Well, because I hadn't already seen it, and I do believe in giving a movie a fair chance.

But "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" never stood a snowballs chance in Hell. The storyline was just so insanely generic and mundane, that anything even resembling enjoyment was just drained right out of the ordeal. So writer Richard John Taylor didn't exactly strike gold here with this movie. And also an unfathomably slow narrative helped to put the final nail in the coffin and secure a low rating from me.

The acting performances in "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" were adequate. Nothing outstanding here. But then again, in all fairness, then the actors and actresses virtually had nothing to work with here in terms of script, storyline, dialogue or interesting characters.

For a horror movie then "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" just didn't cut it.

My rating of "The Haunting of Pendle Hill" lands on a two out of ten stars.

Disappointing on every level

[jillbuxton · 1/10 · 6 April 2022]

Having grown up 20 minutes away from where this movie was set and having known about the history of the Pendle witches since childhood, I was utterly disappointed with this movie and it's delivery.

The dialogue is one dimensional and the acting as a result, is flat and lifeless. Ongoing time jumps to the past add the the frustration of the story, which doesn't really go anywhere with any energy or drive. Even the drone scenery shots and panoramic views are clearly from other areas of the UK, possibly either the Lake District or North Wales, which are both over an hour and a half away from Pendle Hill itself. This adds to the inauthenticity of the production and lack of atmosphere throughout.

If you are hoping for a classic or intelligent 'horror in the woods' type movie or even a classic witch or haunting tale, you will be very disappointed. Much of the movie simply revolves around a script that warns the protagonist about how haunted the woods are without actually delivering the goods. The build up transpires to nothing more than a big and somewhat ridiculous let down of a climax, having relied upon the awful dialogue that prevails throughout to get the viewer there.

I don't usually write reviews, but having known the area and the history of the Pendle witches all of my life, I felt compelled to save potential future viewers of this movie from watching. If you want genuine horror, you are better off reading a true account of what happened to the Pendle Witches, instead of watching this abomination.

The decision to watch this movie will haunt me forever

[schnuck · 2/10 · 7 April 2022]

Just awful. Bad acting, bad script, bad dialogues. Bad everything.

Who thought "Guys, this sounds like a great idea for a movie. Let's do this!

I've watched a lot of "haunting" movies and this one is definitely the worst of them all.

Nice try

[shadowofhero-46519 · 2/10 · 5 April 2022]

A nice attempt to put together a horror film on a budget. Bad actors and a badly concocted story are reminiscent of "The Asylum" quality.

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I dont know who to blame,

[xiiodgaming · 2/10 · 10 April 2022]

I dont know if it was the story, Filter or the worst acting ive seen in a long time to blame for this film.

The story jumps back and forth in time in a really stupid manner that makes the two stories make no sense separately or together.

The weird orange dramatic filter throughout the film that tries to make it look better than it actually is.

The acting, Oh god the terrible acting and dialog through this film are absolutely shocking.

No actual horror elements to this film. Only one significant moment where something comes out of a cave was remotely eye-catching.

Jeffrey Charles Richards character is the only saving grace if you can call it that to this film. The little jokes and actual acting talent should have been showed off more in this film.

Terrible film!

[leewright-45141 · 1/10 · 25 June 2022]

Terrible acting by Americans that tried to make a budget horror film about true life historic facts. Terrible acting, terrible accents, not even set around Pendle Hill (quite important as it is part of the film title and the historic Pendle witch trials that the haunting is supposedly based upon).

To save you some time all of the main characters die - you are welcome for the spoiler!

I would give this film less than 1 if I could do.

Low budget and they didn't make it any better than that.

[cadwashjr · 1/10 · 7 April 2022]

This movie was TERRIBLE, i've never watched a movie which made me feel the way i feel right now. I've wasted my time watching such a bad movie, even i could make a better one with some friends of mine. NEVER EVER WATCH THIS!!!!!!!

awful

[gvhyqnm · 1/10 · 8 April 2022]

Acting terrible and cheesy a 3 year old could do better IT WASNT EVEN SET IN PENDIL HILL I LIVE 20 MINUTES AWAY FROM IT I HAVE NO CLUE WHERE THEY FILMED BUT IT DEFFO WAS NOT PENDIL.

Stupid crap

[rotini-52586 · 1/10 · 6 April 2022]

What kind of melarcky was this ? Just a stupid movie Yell Dad one more time ! Totally dumb dumb dumb. Don't waste your time on this one. My God man. What were you thinking ?

Nearly as good as "Robert", a knee-slapper!!

[Slayvodcore · 10/10 · 27 September 2023]

Well I'll be darn tooting, this film is a riot! I first turned it on and screamed in delight at the mysterious man walking, he was really sexy and a real charmer. The acting is brilliant, perhaps the best I've seen, it sends shocks through my pelvis. The plot makes my shivers timber at the spookiness. The atmosphere is immediately chilling when the man starts tiddling in the woods with his todger, which isn't shown because some children may watch it and don't want to be too scared! If you like "Robert" then you will adore this film, I hope it wins every award because it truly makes me chortle. Brilliant comedy, my family laughed the whole way through.

Slow and spooky ...

[parry_na · 6/10 · 11 June 2022]

This independent film betrays its low budget in the first few moments. Not with the cinematography, which is excellent, or the soundtrack, which is terrifically creepy, but with the flat acting from many of the cast. Asking many of them to assume American accents (for overseas sales, presumably) is a little too much. While not entirely unconvincing, the performances struggle occasionally.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed this, although the story is often too slow for its own good. Set in two timelines, we have some attempts at authentic 1612 ways of speaking. While this is commendable, the dialogue can be a little clumsy.

The beautiful locations, and Richard John Taylor's arty direction, lift a film that concentrates on being a mood piece rather than a series of scares - while we do get occasionally shocking moments, they are few and far between; there is also a good, and commendably restrained, pay-off at the end. My score is 6 out of 10.

Oh please no! The greatest fright here is the movie itself

[alexandriacavalli · 1/10 · 11 September 2023]

I don't think I've ever been compelled to review before - which is a shame as some films deserve excellent reviews. This one however does not.

As a woman born and raised near Pendle and whose family hailed from this area I am more than well acquainted with the history.

FirstlyA the accents - I mean REALLY??! Art thou ever been to Lancashire ? Because you wouldn't bloody know from this!

The acting- diabolical. So hammy it could make a sandwich.

The storyline- laughable.

Please for the love of god will American filmmakers (and I hope the guy who made this is American because if not you have no excuse mate!) stop!! Just bloody stop!!

Even if they were mediocre actors a regional dialect would have made this slightly more believable - but for me it was the woman behind the bar in the scene where the American girl go to stays- she sounded like she might be from the Home Counties no where near Lancashire- and historically the American girl/girl from Lancashire in the 1700's would absolutely have had a regional dialect as would the father.

Take the fact they didn't know the area aside, the slow burn they tried to give was just a joke!

My daughter made better movies for her GCSE film.

Deserves a 0 rating at best.

It deserves 0 stars

[wuzza-34523 · 1/10 · 19 October 2023]

The immortal words of art thou ok ?

Some of the scenic go pro shots were great..... that's it. I thought coronation st had bad actors, this film wins hands down. It makes no sense whatsoever, the script is awful. I've no idea what the budget was, but with the change they could have a great night out in Colne or Clitheroe.

Art thou ok? I mean really, at least research on the language of the day and of the area.

That lass in the cat mask , I'm surprised she didn't suffer from exposure. Then, cockney coppers turn up in Lancashire! I think the guy who directed and edited it needs a lot of explaining to do. The actors must have laughed all the way home on the train wondering how on earth they got lulled into saying yes.

Horror movie? OMG hot mess.

[maureenccoyle · 1/10 · 15 August 2022]

How can thou review such a movie horrible? Twists and turns weave an uneven tapestry of bad acting, writing and cinematography. Remembrances of TV movies of the week from the last century.

A native Pendle's view on the film

[casesolver · 1/10 · 22 January 2024]

I always have lived In the pendle area and i climb the HILL almost every weak in the summer, it is what got me into mountain climbing that takes up and down these fine wild isles. To my excitement when i found a film set about its past i was all ears. You can only imagine my disappointment when the film was not set in this area and the accents also not from around here. The mountains where too big and wild probably set in the lake district and canada and the forest also far too big. I now have an itching feeling that i must go and film my own pendle movie just to do us northerners something to be excited about.

"Art Thou Okay?"

[thomandybish-15114 · 3/10 · 6 August 2023]

You know, it's always interesting to see a movie made by a filmmaker whose ambition outstrips his talent. Such is the case with Richard John Taylor's "The Haunting of Pendle Hill", an atmospheric film based loosely on some real-life witch trials in rural England in 1612. While the cinematography of the rural countryside it lovely, the film itself struggles to build any suspense or interest. Some of this may be due to a low budget, but most of it hinges on the fact that it's bloody difficult to keep an audience engaged with the "slow burn" method when the story and/or actor's performances don't create any momentum or rising tension. And, as the title of this review implies, there are a few glaring period glitches. It's not a technical stinker (most of the film seems very competently made), it just doesn't deliver in terms of action or scares.

Dull Almost Numbing...

[ezgolucky · 2/10 · 5 April 2022]

A very boring movie. I guess any movie that starts with "The Haunting of ..." nowadays watcher beware. If you want a movie where the lead actress basically yells "Dad!" "Dad, Where are you?!" this would be the movie for you. Rate ZZZZzzzz...

Utterly awful

[lovellu · 2/10 · 4 November 2023]

This is like watching a poorly scripted and directed junior school play. Without the 'cute' foibles that children often deliver. Terrible script, acting so bad that it makes TOWIE look like Shakespeare and an overall plot that should never have seen the light of day. Awful to the point that it's almost a comedy.

There is little I can offer by way of a redeeming features, other than that it might spark an interest in a particularly dark episode in British history. Beyond that, this offers little historic relevance or particular accuracy. And as a 'thriller / horror' it does little to thrill or scare.

Don't shy off the path

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 28 July 2022]

Matilda (Lowri Watts-Joyce) searches for her historian father in Pendle Hill. The film flashes back and forth to 1612 as the magistrate (Noel Brendan Mcalley) searches for his lost daughter. There is a witch in the woods that uses mind control. Interesting ending. Just not overly entertaining to watch.

Guide: No swearing.sex. Or nudity. Shower tease.

At least it's a good title, shame about the film.

[shill-77600 · 1/10 · 2 December 2023]

There's only one person to blame for this awful film, and that's producer/director/writer/editor Richard John Taylor. There are occasionally very nice pieces of photography here, and the incidental music is quite good, but that's about all that can be said in it's favour. It isn't enough, though, to raise the film above the level of 'dire'.

It's always difficult to discern whether a badly portrayed character is the result of bad acting or bad directing. Personally, I didn't find most of the acting as bad as others seem to. The fact that the characters don't connect with the audience is down to the downbeat pace and lethargic energy level of the movie, not to mention the amateurish script. This is solely the fault of the director/writer. On the subject of the script, the ending is a complete non sequitur with everything that has gone before it - even in the previous 30 seconds! But such is the lack of engagement with the story (which is just a 30 minute short, stretched out with nothing to fill the extra time), I could barely manage a shrug and a 'meh'.

I haven't seen any of Taylor's other films, but judging from their 2-3 star ratings and the list of producers, I get the impression that they (and this) are nothing more than vanity projects from someone who fancies himself a filmmaker but has no talent in the field. He should stick to being a restaurateur(!!!?), he may have more success.

Utter dross

[carla_crawford · 1/10 · 8 November 2023]

I knew this film would annoy me even after the first 10 mins when the main character was going up north to Lancashire and she got a train quite clearly from Waterloo, where trains only go south. Did the producers think we wouldn't notice? How incredibly lazy.

The scene where she was shouting 'Dad, DAD where are you?' oh my gosh I wanted to throttle her. I don't think a character could be any more annoying. Once you see it you will know what I mean.

Terrible acting, terrible dialogue, terrible facial expressions, terrible accents. About as scary as my left foot.

1 star for the cinematography. Great scenery.

Shall I go on....

Oh dear!

[jeffreyolivertravis · 2/10 · 16 October 2023]

As a horror fan and a "Lancashire lad" I was looking forward to watching this when it came up on my recommended movie list.

Okay it's a budget movie (and I like low-budget independents) but the delivery was pretty terrible. Acting was really quite am dram, particularly the chap saying "thou art" every other sentence. The worst part for me was the location filmography...it flitted from Yorkshire/Lake District/Scotland/Canada/lord knows where every other shot. Pendle Hill is a very distinctive hill in the Forest of Bowland and looks nothing like any of this. It's also quite creepy in its own right and deserved to be in the film (after all, it's in the title!)

Second point of critique.... People generally don't talk with Cockney accents in Lancashire. It just made the whole thing a farce to me. There was a real opportunity to get into Lancashire dialect/folklore and none of this was used.

I did get a couple of screams from the film so that was a plus.

Haunted for sure

[jswaywell · 1/10 · 22 September 2023]

Haunted by not a single Pendle accent, lakes that don't exist and my giddy aunt 🙄. What were they thinking. I kind of feel sorry for the actors because the blame for such a film lies mostly with lack of research by the directors and script writers and as someone actually from Lancashire having actually climbed that hill at least once (and never seeing a forest there) a little research would have been useful and Shakespeare accents won't do ("Hubble bubble toil and trouble" was witches but in Scotland ).

Well I made it three quarters of the way through before deciding my electricity bill was more important.

"Be prepared for the worst"

[Clintborari · 1/10 · 20 November 2023]

This review will be succinct because, frankly, The Haunting of Pendle Hill doesn't warrant much attention and must be one of the most dreadfully dire, and unexciting films I can remember.

The Good: There's not much to highlight. The scenery and cinematography, featuring lush trees and English mountainsides, are gorgeously done. However, these visuals contribute little to enhancing the story or plot, feeling somewhat out of place. Arthur's (Jeffrey Charles Richards) self-inflicted demise after encountering the witch's granddaughter, Jennet (Evie Hughes), is the sole moment with any pulse in the entire movie. Jimmy 'The Bee' Bennett (PC Webster) delivered the most convincing lines, and the 3-second visual glimpse of the witch in the cave.

The Bad: Where do I begin? There's just too much wrong with this film for it to have been approved for release.

The budget couldn't have been more than a few thousand dollars because it was just characters endlessly walking through the forest and countryside with perhaps two internal rooms shown for the entire film.

Matilda, played by Lowri Watts-Joyce, takes on the main heroine and plays the dual role with almost no distinction between the characters, resulting in ordinarily dull and insipid acting.

Performances, and the dialogue in the film are pitiful, approaching the worst I've ever seen-or can remember. The initial conversation with the father and traveller is outrageously plain and monotonous, setting the tone for the entire film.

Moving on to Noel Brendan Mcalley's (Noel) scenes, they are cringey, slow, and lethargic. It feels as though the actors are reading directly from a piece of paper for the first time while the camera rolls on.

My Final Verdict: I cannot recommend this film. Fortunately, the runtime is short, as if they knew not to waste too much of your time. After picking this up and reading reviews, I had low expectations, but my goodness, it goes down as an 'I will never get that time of my life back experience.' I almost feel bad for the one-star review I gave Silent Night after watching this.

1/10.

Poor

[garyt-84082 · 27 September 2023]

Wow have just watched possibly the most dire movie ever !!! Lame acting and dont even get me started on the locations !! Whoever thought this one up failed miserably and may I suggest follows a different career path. At one point I was intrigued to see the 3 sisters ( mountains in Glencoe, Scotland ) ?? Too add pendle hill is a hill not a mountain. It stands alone, not pointed like some of what I can describe as alpine scenes ? I really dont think I can give it even one star !!! The first few minutes started okay as I thought yep this is a variation on the actual story ? How very wrong I was !!!!