The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012) User Reviews

Rodrigo Gudiño's first stab at a feature length horror movie is an indicator of good things to come.

[roarshack80 · 6/10 · 12 July 2013]

let's face it, the majority of horror movies out there just aren't that scary. so, if you're a horror fan - ask yourself this question:

When was the last time I watched a horror movie that ACTUALLY gave me the chills?

if you came up with a movie or two that truly got under your skin at one point or another during the film(s), you know that those involved with those movies are true horror fans. The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is also one of those types of horror movies.

for his first go at a full length, Rodrigo Gudiño let everyone know that he's here for one reason only: to strike genuine fear via filmmaking. granted, the premise is something you've seen a million times. without saying too much, the premise is the straight forward 'Alone In the House' approach. which usually is an indicator that the movie you are about to see is something you'll forget about five minutes afterwards because you've seen it a million times.

if you can appreciate the technical side of filmmaking, then you can appreciate the way The Last Testament was made. speaking honestly, i can say that about five minutes in i already judged this movie with a "Yep. Here we go. AGAIN..." attitude. i imagined a bunch of first year film students critiquing every shot and pointing out technical 'mistakes' with such aspects like lighting, camera work, acting, this, that, and whatever else they bore each other with.

but there's something to keep in mind: Gudiño focuses on the story. he puts all his eggs into the first step in filmmaking - writing a good story FIRST, then move along to the other stuff. which doesn't always apply to horror movies (although, sometimes that's not a bad thing.) this story is the most important part. so if the snarky film students point out every little rookie mistake with the filmmaking process of a rookie first film, so be it. in ten years, the jokes on them. in ten years they'll realize Gudiño's first attempt was only his warm up. his foot in the door. while they're sitting around forcing out critiques and secretly wishing they were in Gudiño's director chair.

.

Style over substance

[Corpus_Vile · 5/10 · 25 April 2013]

Leon has recently inherited his mother's home after her death. Before her death, his mother was a member of a rather odd cult who worship angels. Taking up residence, he explores the old, creepy and rather labyrinthine house that has statues of angels everywhere. However, Leon soon realises that there's more to his mother's house and her life than meets the eye. He also starts to realise that maybe he's not alone in the house. And maybe, his mother put so much faith in angels to protect her. Protect her from something that may now have its eye on Leon himself...

The Last Will & Testament of Rosalind Leigh has so much potential. It has a gorgeous set design and a nicely ominous tone and impending sense of dread, as well as an effective and decidedly haunting voice-over from Vanessa Redgrave. Unfortunately though after the half way mark it just kinda falls flat and comes across as having some very nice ideas that unfortunately either aren't executed well or else just simply discarded. As a result the film feels decidedly dissatisfying and concludes in an unexpectedly abrupt manner that ultimately leaves the viewer feeling slightly cheated.

That having said it has a nice atmosphere, is absorbing enough for the first half and marks the feature debut of Rue Morgue Magazine editor & president Rodrigo Gudino. While it ultimately didn't work for me, I do think that Gudino has a lot of promise and is certainly talented and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for him in future.

5/10, a film that I personally was disappointed in, but ultimately worth a look as I suspect it's a film that'll polarize fans overall.

Above Average

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 26 August 2013]

An antiques collector inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. Soon, he comes to suspect that his mother's oppressive spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house to contact him with an urgent message.

Despite both having characters named Rosalind Leigh, this film has nothing to do with "The Sculptress", the 1993 crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. So if you are looking for an adaptation, you are looking in the wrong place.

This actually a pretty good film. While simple on plot, the atmosphere is excellent, the voiceovers are chilling and the overall color and lighting in the cinematographer is spectacular. This is an above average film simply for the way it was shot.

Excellent viewing for mature audiences with refined tastes

[jukka76543 · 11 July 2013]

A slowly developing, atmospheric ghost story. Acting was great. The sets were Awesome. The plot was great. Overall the film felt great. What was missing though was a great soundtrack, but overall I just think this film was just great.

This movie is very subtle, slowly developing and intelligent. What this absolutely is not is a cliché ghost movie.

I have no clue why this film has so poor review on IMDb as of 2013, 5.7. Everyone with a mature mind and refined tastes should absolutely appreciate this film. I was actually scared for once. I guess I have seen about 50+ horror movies in my lifetime and most of the time they fail to frighten me.

Good viewing for mature, quiet audiences. Like somebody else already wrote in their review, keep an eye on this director/writer Rodrigo Gudiño. We got a fresh out of school master film maker making his mark on the world here. Keep doing what you're doing Mr. director and next time get a decent soundtrack for your film.

Bad Screenplay, Promising Director

[themissingpatient · 4/10 · 7 August 2013]

The Last Will And Testament Of Rosalind Leigh is a very low-budget dramatic haunted house short story stretched out into a feature. Our antagonist is Aaron Poole as Leon Leigh. He's come to his mother's house, which he's just inherited. The films begins completely focusing on the atmosphere. The entire film takes place inside the house, in which you are literally surrounded by creepy, old religious artifacts.

The story slowly begins to get interesting but everything leads to dead ends and in the end, everything becomes pointless anyway. It almost makes you wonder if you've just been tricked into watching a student film. While the religious cult themes worked and the set design was brilliant, everything else seems held back by budget restraints or care. The screenplay, if there was one, was terrible but the director shows an eye for shot composition and a talent for creating an atmospheric mood.

Did not like. Spoilers of why listed below

[banglainey · 2/10 · 21 December 2013]

First, I would like to say the visual aspects of the film were very pleasing to the eye. Many of the scenes in the crowded house with the antique items everywhere were well shot, had just enough color to draw the eye, and left you searching the picture for more details. That was about the only thing I enjoyed.

The acting wasn't bad either. It was mainly the storyline, or lack therefor, that really got to me.

The film opens with an old woman narrating, she is going on and on about some tangent about her son. None if it really makes a lot of sense, but you get the idea that the son doesn't really like the mother very much, grew up, left, and never came back, and now she has passed away.

The story begins with the son showing up to the house. When weird stuff starts to happen, we are exposed to his disinclination to partake in his mother's weird religious rituals. This is a theme throughout the movie, and is even the "cliffhanger" at the end of the movie, his reaffirming his disinterest in his crazy mother's religion. The rest of the film consists of him creeping around the house and being scared by possible hauntings or possible hallucinations; it is kind of left up in the air for the viewer to decide which one. At the end of the movie, nothing is really revealed or explained, and the son just ends up leaving. The closing scene reveals the mother is haunting the house.

That is really all there is to it... I found myself distracted during long boring scenes where nothing significant seems to happen and the son is just wandering around the house, maybe chasing a skittering noise or a brief shadow, which piques your interest but ends up not being enough to really scare you or satisfy what you thought was going to be a scare scene. There were some cult-ish elements at one point that began to unravel into the story, but for some reason you never get to learn the extent of the cult or the details of it and it is never really explained or explored in the story. Actually, I would say that is the entire reason why I disliked the film. It more or less takes you around and shows you all these neat and interesting elements of a really good horror film, and right as the story is starting to get really good, the main character just stands up and decides he is going to leave and just forget about all these neat interesting horrific elements he has uncovered in the previous hour of stumbling about this old house.

There were exactly 3 scenes that actually made me interested enough to focus on the film, all toward the end and involving ghost-like creatures that appear for a mere seconds. Now, since the reviews on IMDb really aren't that bad, I did decide to watch the movie twice: the first time, I fell asleep about 30 minutes in, when the main character is just beginning to wander about the abandoned house. I decided to give it another try, because really now, it can't be THAT boring, and besides, I am a huge horror movie fan, and even if a horror movie is REEEAAALLLY, REAAALLLLY BAD I still end up enjoying most of them.

This particular one, eh, I still wouldn't say it's bad, but it was boring, there was a lot left to be discovered, explained, revealed. I did not like the writing, and I especially did not like how it ended with the son simply walking away without really learning anything. It just seems like a waste of a film. I know based on the comments, many people were able to see a deeper meaning in the film, such as the woman's struggle with her faith and the symbolic mother/son story involved, to me it was just a very boring, pointless movie with -ZERO- character growth or development. The son arrived, wandered around a bit, and left, basically feeling the same as he did before he arrived, and resolving none of the conflicts he discovered while wandering around, like the cat-creature or the weird angel statue opening it's eyes.

So he basically comes across all this freaky stuff and is like, meh, nah I'm just gonna leave.

Come on now!! What the heck kind of ending is that!! I kinda wish I would have fallen asleep the second time as well!

Competent, creepy indie with an ending that may rub you the wrong way.

[The_Dead_See · 5/10 · 20 August 2013]

One thing I'll say for The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is that it's still got me trying to figure out if I liked the ending or not which means at least it did something that made me think. That's quite a rare thing for a movie in this attention-deficit era.

The wrap up of TLWATORL is a curious thing. If you think about it enough afterward, it's actually quite a unique and brilliant concept; yet as it occurs it also feels unsatisfactory and a little like a cop-out in some ways too. I can't divulge more without spoilers.

Ending aside, the rest of the film is definitely competent and creepy. There are a couple of scenes that really raised my hackles and that's not easy to do. Aaron Poole carries the film pretty much by himself and while his performance isn't perfect, it's more than adequate. The set decoration is a little over the top - my wife and I joked that the house looked like one of those "found object" games you can buy for ten bucks at Walmart - but I'm not going to condemn a movie for its set decor. The one major criticism I will give is that a lot of the movie is narrated by the titular Rosalind Leigh rather than revealed in more subtle ways. I'm a fan of 'show don't tell' but this film is all tell.

Still, if you're in the mood for a slow burn creeper and don't have sky high expectations, TLWATORL will fill a couple of hours nicely. I would say that it's current IMDb score (5.2 at the time of writing) is just about dead on.

Very immersing experience

[rust37 · 7/10 · 16 June 2013]

Bottom line - deeply atmospheriс, very touching, mystic and dramatic movie with a horror flavor. Close by the aftertaste to Insidious and Sinister, little below on the horror scale, and a bit up on intellectual. Don't expect massive effects, it is definitely not about it.

I loved this slow pace, rich decorations, brave camera angles and the sound work. Finally not only boom-sound effects! Just a subtle squeaking wood under one's feet in an old empty house - that's a kind of scare I was looking for. The art of attention to details is here again.

I can agree that The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh didn't untap all the potential it has uncovered. Surely not because of lacking substance.

I rather believe that the author wanted to say way more than runtime allowed to - on religion, obsessions, mother-son relationship, on religion and loneliness.. Or may be he left the space for our imagination by intent. Whatever the reason the more interesting it will be to see next works from Rodrigo Gudino I'm definitely subscribing to.

High expectations, very VERY disappointed.

[jdgolf33 · 1/10 · 24 December 2013]

Save yourself the 85 minutes to do something else. Seriously, this movie was terrible.

I watched the preview and was intrigued and lured into watching it. It progressed so slowly that you began to question what was going to happen and all of the sudden nothing happens; then its over.

A young ma, Leon, inherits his deceased mothers old home, which houses religious artifacts that mean nothing. There is a wolf-like creature in the movie that I can only assume is a symbol of loneliness which is what is portrayed as the reason of his mothers death. If my synopsis makes little sense, that is because the movie makes no sense.

Was not scary, had so much suspense for no reason, and so inclimatic that you long for some sort of satisfaction. You may need to go to Disneyland to recover from such disappointment.

A Profound Tale

[GirishGowda · 7/10 · 16 September 2013]

An antiques collector, Leon (Aaron Poole) inherits a house from his estranged and deceased mother, Rosalind Leigh (Vanessa Redgrave) only to discover that she had been living in the old house by turning it into a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. Much to his chagrin, he learns that his mother was the sole purchaser of all the items he had sold over the years. Soon, he comes to suspect that his mother's spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house to contact him with an urgent message.

An original horror movie - at least, I've never seen something like this before in the horror genre. The plot doesn't give anything away. Its incredibly slow-paced, but nonetheless highly intriguing the whole time. The raw voice-over from Vanessa Redgrave is a thing to behold. I cannot stop thinking about the ending and looking back now, the whole thing was amazing. The mother loses her faith after her son denies her faith and beliefs and abandons her. Her inner loneliness morphs into a demoncat while her fellow cult members turn on her in her old age. A tale of emotions, loss, and suffering and trying to console oneself through delusions. It is interesting to see that this doesn't have to be a supernatural occurrence. People are lonely everywhere and that can be quite deadly either for themselves or others. Loneliness can really be a monster.

First timer, Rodrigo Gudiño shows great talent in setting up an eerie atmosphere and going through the story without resorting to cheap tricks at any stage. The house in itself is a grand character and the dance of the shadows is immensely captivating. The acting by Aaron Poole is alright, but leaves something to be desired. He's literally the only person on screen for most of the movie and hence everything depended on him. If it was a better actor, this movie would have a higher rating from me. That said, I believe I'll be revisiting this movie some time again and that's a pretty big thing for someone like me who doesn't normally like to re-watch the same stuff. A profound tale which ends up leaving you sadder by the time you finish it. Truly an underrated and overlooked gem.

7/10

Fine production values, but cheap jack script; massively bad ending.

[suite92 · 1/10 · 30 January 2014]

Leon returns to the house he grew up in after his mother dies. They had been apart for many years.

Leon spent lots of time in the past with his mental health professional, who has helpful suggestions about his 'bump in the night' experiences at the house. The house is opulent and chocked full of reminders of Leon's childhood. There are audio and video tapes from a mystery cult, including one about communications with the dead. Eventually, Leon finds a room full of religious statues, candles, stained glass and the like.

The cult is "God's Messengers" which Leon researches on the web. He consults his security company by phone, then online, when he seems to have an animal intruder. They see something in the surveillance data, but cannot make out what it is. Then he loses online connection.

Leon seems to see a lot of things after that, but does he?

-----Scores------

Cinematography: 10/10 Amazingly beautifully done, in low light or high.

Sound: 10/10 Well done, sometimes quite atmospheric.

Acting: 5/10 Veteran actor Aaron Poole gave a fine performance. Film legend Vanessa Redgrave was OK as a voice actor. However, the script was so bad that the performances mattered not.

Screenplay: 0/10 Five minutes of a bad plot stretched beyond breaking over eighty minutes. I certainly hope the director is not funded again unless he has strong oversight.

Hypnotizingly correct Horror

[EdwardSaberhagen · 8/10 · 14 July 2014]

I don't know what other users expected or wanted to see...But I actually liked this one.

Gudiño's first shot at not shorts. He quite nailed it! Gudiño takes us into the very self of his characters; we get to know them, to feel what they felt.

Guy enters mother's home in hopes of selling, because she has passed away; guy starts to feel, hear, see things...It looks like the very same formula, but, Gudiño takes it one step up, if not a couple more.

Innovation finally arrives in this genre. A great start to build a pretty good future for Gudiño.

In a world where originality cannot be found in horror...

[alex-mr-ly · 7/10 · 5 October 2013]

This, my fellow movie watchers, is where we catch a glimpse of true artistry. Most of us know that the reason that the horror genre gets such terrible ratings most the time is because we've all seen the same crap over and over again. And it gets old after a while. We can thank directors like Alfred Hitchcock for making practically every original thought for horror films. But dare I say it, I should emphasize the "practically." This movie, was awesome. It didn't try to pull every popular string to draw the mainstream audience in (that is addicted to seeing the same trash show up over and over again and call it "scary") and it didn't seek to simply get views and something to watch once to say you did to all your friends. This film actually requires the audience to work. I know, daunting task right? Almost a horror in itself. But come on, aren't we a little tired of just having most if not all the answers come to us, with very few questions asked? This film shot down the traditional and gave us a little originality, something that is VERY hard to find. Give it a watch and see for yourself. SPOILER ALERT: Yes, the ending is abrupt. Yes, it may leave you wanting more. But isn't that an amazing feeling? Tell me another recent film ESPECIALLY in the horror category that actually left you wanting a sequel? I can't name one. I doubt I could even name one if I gave it some thought, which I won't bother to do because like my belief in God I have faith that the horror movies I've seen lately excluding Rosalind Leigh seriously suck and aren't worth remembering. Trust me, I am hard on movies.

If you like both a film that asks you questions and is deeply metaphorically and religiously compelling, watch this movie.

Waste of Time

[Blonde2291 · 1/10 · 30 July 2013]

This movie is more than an hour long in duration, and nothing worth mentioning happens throughout the movie. The whole movie can be summarized in one sentence - a man enters a house and leaves it in the end - giving you ample opportunity to sleep in the middle.

The setup of the house, in which the whole movie takes place, is a pathetic attempt at making you feel a little spooky. There is only one visible actor in the movie who goes around in an empty house. In the meanwhile, he calls people over phone and the documentary-like voice of his mother keeps telling something that makes you doze off fast. And before you realize it, the movie is over.

The movie does show some special effect scenes that are supposed to blow your brains out with horror. One of them is of a cat-human like character who is really very eerie. Another one is when the eyes of a statue of an angel change and point towards something. But these both come up very late in the movie - by that time you are already bored to the bone.

Had the producer/director cared to add more visible actors in the movie, it would have become a little more lively and worth watching. But instead of the actors, they stuffed the movie set with lots of angel statues which has virtually no effect on the viewers.

This movie deserves no more than 1 out of 10 points.

Could have been a very good movie. But it isn't.

[Flamboyant_Little_Devil · 3/10 · 10 January 2015]

There is too much exposition from the narrator to start with. Too much repetition. The idea of a dead person talking to someone is a very good one and could have been treated in a much more subtle manner. No need to say "I was lonely" 500 times. It only takes 1 to understand that she died a lonely person. It takes all the momentum from the ending.

The camera following was quite interesting. Though at sometimes quite amateurish. Also there's a part where the camera is shooting at the closed door for way longer than it should. And that shot goes nowhere. It needed some reasonable resolution.

The whole "ghostly presence" thing only had one good moment: when the little statue appeared behind the man in the basement, but again, no resolution for that shot either (ie, the motif didn't continue).

There's a lot of walking around to reach nowhere.

The "visiting man" had no resolution at all.

As for the "dark creature": If the creature was the embodiment of the woman's loneliness in her later days in life, it makes little sense for the man as a child to be haunted by it. It would have worked quite beautifully if there was a moment in which all the "no resolution" moments came to one brief shot/movement related to the woman, and not to the man. After all, the man is there only to give some weight to the dead woman's narrative.

To sum it up, it lacks many things that would make it a great movie. Desperation, Depression, Oppression. Everything related to loneliness and old-age.

All these things aside, there are some good things about it. The props seemed somewhat overbearing, but I do know some people who's homes are filled with them to the roof. And, to be honest, some of those props were really good and added to the ambiance.

The dark creature is well made (except it's shadow)

I wanted to like it

[vixinvun · 5/10 · 17 October 2013]

OK it wasn't a bad movie. I wanted to like it, I really did. It had an excellent story line, plot was good but they could of done so much more!!

OK this is kinda of a spoiler alert but I am not going into details. They had an awesome set up, and I really wish they did more with the angels. But they kind of left you high and dry towards the end.

I know it was suppose to be that way but still.

Again not a bad watch, so please do so. It was a good movie but I can't say it was the best or I like it.

So with that it is an OK movie, it will keep you entertained but don't get your hopes up for something awesome...it won't happen...ever....

Has some spooky moments but overall package doesn't deliver

[851222 · 5/10 · 6 January 2015]

Greetings from Lithuania.

"The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh" (2012) is unfortunately not very good horror picture. It has some nice mood, some nice settings and OK lead and solo performance, and it also features some chilling moments, but unfortunately far and between. This film is also very short, at running time 1 h and 15 min. but that was fine by me.

Overall, this flick has some nice moments, but they are very rare and overall experience suffer. I actually felt kinda sad after watching this movie, as the mother of main had some sad voice and very sad lines - it's probably the only horror movie that wasn't really scary but very sad, i felt sad for mother. Not recommended experience.

Slow, moody, atmospheric Ghost Story. Extremely low-key, but effective if you like this kind of film... Rewatchability: High Blu-ray: Good A:9 V:8

[lathe-of-heaven · 7/10 · 18 May 2015]

Heh... I am not at all surprised that this film has such polarized reviews. As you can likely tell by many of the Summaries, people either think it is very good or hate it. The reason being is VERY simple. Whenever you have a very low key 'Horror' film or especially a Ghost Story, unless you are the kind of person who really specifically enjoys these kinds of movies, you are just gonna sit there and think 'What crap!' and be totally bored. Thus the 1 and 2 star reviews that you see here...

I've pretty much given up on people realizing that when they come here to dump all over a specific kind of film that they would NEVER like anyway, it is of absolutely NO help to others who may be looking for this type of film and want to know if it is a good one. It's like if you hate old-style, Classic B-Westerns, and you come here and review a film like that and then say how awful, corny, and stupid it is. How helpful is that to other people who happen to LIKE old B-Westerns. Not terribly much... But, people just do not seem to get that.

Anyway, sorry to digress a bit, but I really wish people wouldn't waste all our time and do that. The story and pacing is SLOW... It is ALL about mood and atmosphere with a good layer of Psychological overtones. Also, it is nominally a Ghost Story, which either you like them or your don't. And, it is a SLOW, moody Ghost Story with VERY little in the way of violence or quick-edits or any overt or graphic imagery. So, if you are on of these people who love films like 'HOSTEL' or 'SAW' or 'THE MARTYRS' or 'HAUTE TENSION', you probably will get almost nothing from this movie at all. Again, precisely the reason for many of the poor reviews that you see here.

As I mentioned, a lot of this film is Psychological, mainly because you are pretty much experiencing it from the point of view of the one guy who has come back to his old home where he was raised. One thing that I really did like was the set decoration, the imagery and the cinematography and lighting. It was very effective in creating the mood of the story. Also, I really liked the soundtrack; although the story and overall mood were very low-key, the soundtrack itself reminded me of some of the more adventurous Horror film soundtracks that I really liked that were more common in Horror films about 40 years ago. It is a nice counterpoint to the slow mood of the rest of the film and can build quite a nice crescendo of suspense in a couple of scenes.

There is a lot of religious imagery, which along with the look of the rest of the film was pretty creepy and effective in adding to the mood. The story is deliberately vague so that the audience doesn't REALLY know quite what is going on. The voice-over narration of the mother who has died and what is revealed about the way he was raised adds to the texture of the story, such as it is. Not to be too specific, but the end was rather mystifying and I cannot honestly say that it was clear to me as to what it meant. But, the way it was done still packed a nice little punch at the end of the film.

Basically as you can likely tell by now, this is NOT your usual modern-day, MTV-induced, shaky-cam, found-footage Horror film. It is very much a throwback to Classic Ghost stories, and very low-key ones at that. So, if you have no real interest in those types of films, then you probably won't care for this one. BUT... if you DO have an appreciation for slow, ambiguous, Psychological, and very moody Horror films, then yes, like me, you probably will will find it intriguing and entertaining.

Melancholic and slow, but still worth watching.

[laespo_13 · 5/10 · 1 June 2014]

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh requires patience and understanding, the story starts with a 5 minute monologue by some unseen character who basically tells Leon's family background and his problems with his mother and father, who were members of a cult. At first I thought it was lazy writing, getting a voice-over to introduce the character and his struggles instead of doing so through his actions, but I sat through it because I'd been looking for this film for some time now, but as the film progressed it became clear that Leon's not the main character, his mother is. However, the constant voice-overs explaining her failing relationship with her son get a bit annoying.

For the average viewer, this film requires some patience, it's not something to watch with friends on a Friday night. It's slow and quiet and the gorgeous photography just adds to the overall tone of the film, it's fortunately short on cheap jump scares, but that doesn't mean it doesn't get super creepy at times.

Some things rubbed me the wrong way, though. (SPOILERS) One of the scariest moments in the film (at least in my opinion)involves Leon sitting on the floor with a phone in his hand and the sound of footsteps around him and nothing more. What you can't see ends up being scarier than what you do see, which is an unconvincing CGI creature.

The end was both sad and confusing. Some things are left unexplained and I felt like Leon's ordeal with the creepy creature and scary angels didn't matter at all or were just his mother's way to beg for his son's attention and none of the characters evolve, Leon's an unbeliever and he remains that way and his mother remains alone.

It's a beauty to see for its photography and melancholic atmosphere, but the story unfortunately falls short and for a horror film it also falls short on scares, but maybe because it's sadder than it is sinister.

For me it's a 6.5, I really hope to see more from this director.

An intellectualists horror film. Watch it alone in the dark!

[scottmannen1 · 7/10 · 6 September 2015]

This movie has a very low rating, one that it does NOT deserve. As this movie is more of a suspense building religious horror film designed for people who are interested in watching an intelligent "Hitchcock style" film that will grind on your nerves and make you look twice in the shadows. I am afraid that many viewers were expecting a slasher style blood and guts jump-scare movie. Not so with this one. Ghosts, demons and dark iconology scare the viewer into a dark place. This is a good film, one that achieves its goal of installing terror and making you think about it afterwards. Bravo to the director on creating something unique in a genre overrun with splatter fest and cheap gore.

Watch this one if you have a keen intelligence and want something different.

Plain

[baunacholi-86159 · 2/10 · 27 November 2020]

In my POV it tries hard to be different or artsy but does not deliver. Not on the story, not on the character, not on the cinematography....sure, everything is very symbolic and ultra heavy on setting / artifacts and the bespoken angel cult. There's a certain atmosphere which could be called ghostly but ultimately it's not. It's plain and beige throughout.

True horror lies in religion it self

[magusky-z · 10/10 · 27 May 2013]

Every time i see a movie about ghost stories, haunted house or demonic possession i don't expect much more than atmosphere and one of two shocks scenes.

This film has all you expect from a ghost story and much, much more. The way it construct the atmosphere is beautiful. It feels like if the house itself if giving you a slow tour beneath its dark corridors. The narration is just perfect, it grabs you at the very beginning.

But let me focus not on what you really expect from this movie. This film its no conventional ghost story, for there is no ghost. There is no demon. The only thing that hunts this movie its religion itself. The story is construct around the basic idea of confronting a idealistic religious dead mother and her dark cult to what she believes its the right choice for a living.

It really surpass every conventional ghost story film. Its a brave film and a really brave director to take the story to another level entirely.

They did a tremendous job telling you the story, if feels like there is this haunted house where nobody is there to be haunted. Its nostalgic the way its narrated.

Its an amazing film, beautiful atmosphere, a great and intriguing sound work, it really submerge you into the house, and overall it has a deep, meaningful and complex background taking religion as the mainly horror subject in this film.

The good kind of horror

[julioxsm · 7/10 · 13 September 2013]

I watched this wanting a "normal" scary movie for a few jumps here and there, what i got was a lot better!

I put this movie in the same category as The Exocism of Emily Rose. They're horror movies that actually have a good storyline , that make put all that you have just seen into complete and coherent thoughts instead of just throwing all the information right in your face like most do.

The movie has a slow pace and an amazing eerie vibe making you feel uneasy throughout the whole thing, completed with the help of Vanessa Redgrave's voice-over done with perfection. It was packed with small hints everywhere leaving you collecting crumbs until you had more and more information. The cinematography and camera work was spot on but I didn't quite like the set design, i think it could have been done with more taste and better positioning.

Overall i think it was a great watch and would surely recommend it, shame it has such a low rating on IMDb.

What did I just watch?

[DarlaNyx · 1/10 · 23 July 2013]

Well there is an hour of my life I'll never get back again.

This movie has absolutely no right being classed as horror. It was slow paced, extremely dull & practically nonsensical. I zoned out several times within the movie & actually found counting the marks on my ceiling a welcome escape.

The acting was average, the storyline was dull & the whole movie went on too long it seemed. I would not recommend this to anyone looking for thrills & scares. It is however perfect for helping you nod off to dreamland.

1 star out of 10.

Dire

[gbaglondon · 1/10 · 27 August 2014]

Don't be fooled by a few selected scene sets and ethereal camera movement in the first 5 mins, this film is shite. vanessa redgrave must have been being fingered in a back room to agree to anything to do with this, it's pathetic. total waste of money and time and effort to even pick the bits of tesco onion rings out of your nails. please don't bother, just watch your dog have a wet dream instead. this guy the only on screen actor must be pretty bald because his hair is permanently fixed to his head in a kind of trying not but really edging towards a silverkrin mega streanth comb over, if i was him i'd have booked a travelodge double room with a hooker in toe in 30 seconds after stepping into this house, which looked like a wickford rare detached with dodgy double glazing and 88 stone brick effect. this is early 90's crappy b going on c horror crap and is more forgettable than my foreign earbashed fat sweaty east London bus ride home.