The Haunting of Whaley House (2012) User Reviews

If you like B grade haunting movies this might be for you

[mognam · 5/10 · 1 August 2012]

I enjoyed the introduction to this movie, although it had me thinking it was going to be a horror, comedy at first.

Other reviews have complained about the acting. OK, some of it was bad but I have seen much worse on higher budget films.

While watching I had to remind myself that they only had a budget of a little over $100,000 to make this. I think they did a reasonable job considering this.

The most annoying part of this film was when the characters reacted in ways you surely would not under the circumstances they faced.

The ending made the movie worth the effort to watch in my opinion.

I like B horror movies and found this mildly entertaining. I had two friends watching it who don't like B horrors and they clearly did not enjoy themselves.

Great haunting movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 25 July 2012]

For a presentation from The Asylum, then "The Haunting of Whaley House" was really one amazing movie. I remember seeing some, well lets just call them questionable movies from The Asylum in the past, but they do manage to throw a curveball every now and then and put out something with real entertainment value.

And "The Haunting of Whaley House" was just one such incident.

The movie was actually rather entertaining, and it did have the occasional scary moment here and there, but in overall it wasn't a scary movie as per se. To me, it was more in the likes of a supernatural thriller that was heavily driven by the story itself and not the actual scares.

I must admit that I am not familiar with the actual story behind the Whaley house, but having seen this movie it has put a seed in the soil so to speak, having sparked an interest in learning more about the actual Whaley house and its story.

The story in "The Haunting of Whaley House" is about a group of young people who venture into the haunted Whaley house, despite having been thoroughly warned not to. Of course some of the youngsters are skeptical about the possibility of the house actually being haunted and not just being a tourist fraud, while others are believers. The night hours grow long as the strange occurrences inside the house amplifies and becomes more and more threatening. Perhaps there is something to the haunted stories after all?

The effects in the movie were adequate for a movie of this budget. They were used effectively although with moderation. But it did work out well enough and helped added to the suspense of the movie.

As for the acting, well most of the people hired for the various roles were doing good enough jobs, however, I personally didn't care much for the performance that Howard McNair (playing the psychic Keith Drummond) put on, he was too mellowed out and seemed like tripping on shrooms. But of course, that is a matter of personal taste and preference. But aside from that, then I think people did good enough jobs with their roles.

The house itself, although not actually filmed in the actual Whaley house, was actually a nice touch. Lots of nice details and small things that you spot here and there. The feel of the house and the mood there was really great and helped added to the atmosphere of the movie. Had they failed to create something less here, the movie would have been a whole other experience.

"The Haunting of Whaley House" is a good movie that is entertaining and just the right amount of spooky and creepy without venturing into being a downright horrorfest. Well worth a watch if you like movie about hauntings, and if you are tired of the hyped up hand-held camera ghost movies that are supposed to be based on real occurrences.

Mixed feelings

[crazycow-843-404456 · 4/10 · 27 July 2012]

A group of friends decides to stay a night at the Whaley House (known for it's real life hauntings).

This movie confused me, not because of the story, but mainly the acting.

As i started watching this, i wasn't sure if this was gonna be a comedy or a horror movie (classic haunted house horror), or a mix of both, to me it was a mix, even thou it was suppose to be a serious take on a real life haunted house, i felt the characters were a joke.

The story is based on the real Whaley house (no... they did not film it there), there is not much to say... except, group of friends goes into house, house is haunted, done.

Let me get to the acting, i didn't like it, something felt wrong, it wasn't bad acting, nor was it good, it felt out of place for a movie like this, sure... some gave in a decent effort, others did not, which made it hard for me to watch this. The directing and script had a lot to blame for this overall mess, it just wasn't scary, it wasn't gory, it had no suspense, to me... it felt like a daytime drama with horror elements in it.

Overall, sub par acting, sub par directing, bad script, could of been a good movie... since it was basing it's idea from the most haunted house in the USA, But failed in every way to deliver us a good watch.

Final verdict - 4 out of 10, i cannot recommend this movie to anyone. (i also think me giving this movie a 4 out of 10 is being very kind to it, i probably should give it a 3, but i'm a niice guy)

Better than most Asylum efforts, but could have been better

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 7 October 2012]

The premise was sort of intriguing, so that was my main reason for seeing The Haunting of Whaley House. It is a mediocre movie, but The Asylum have done much worse. It does get plaudits for the better than average production values- the photography and scenery are decent and while nothing great the effects could have been much worse- an attempt at a creepy and suspenseful atmosphere that few other Asylum movies have even attempted let alone do it successfully and some decent jolts and scares. However, while the acting has been worse before it is nothing special either, if more bland than terrible. The music is rather repetitive, while the characters are uninteresting stereotypes and the dialogue is trite and has no flow. The story has its moments but does fall into generic predictability and is further advantaged by some pedantic pacing and a contrived ending. The attacks eventually get cheesy and were on the unoriginal side to start with, and the gore is excessive and in the end unnecessary. Despite these many flaws, compared to other movies from The Asylum it is not that terrible. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Horrible

[Boratt772 · 2/10 · 11 August 2012]

I came across this movie by watching someone review it on Youtube, so I decided to try it out. I do usually enjoy low-budget horror movies, but this was just a bore. The acting is horribly bad and painful to watch. It seems to be a near-knockoff of "The St. Francesville Experiment", which is a much better movie. The special effects are basically a collection of home-made effects you see 1000's of videos of on Youtube by people using Adobe After-Effects. The beginning segment featuring the three friends at the front of the house was painfully drawn out, and obviously extended to add a few minutes to the runtime. The big guy there has been in several low-budget movies, and always seems to be type-cast and always playing the same character. There are several attempts at humor in the movie, which fall flat. I do realize this is low-budget, but in some cases that is a good thing for the charm, but this was just an overall bad movie. If it appears on Netflix, give it a try for the laughs, but I don't recommend buying it.

Incredibly bad and formulaic stuff.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 3/10 · 30 July 2012]

Nothing to see here. Just another one of those movie in which a group of stupid people visit a haunting house and of course have some bad encounters with ghosts. But this movie is even worse than the average genre attempt and even the lovers of the genre will get very little out of this movie.

I think that the biggest mistake of the movie is that it's mostly trying to be a realistic genre movie, while it clearly didn't had the right budget or people involved to pull that off. The horrible acting causes lots of the moments to work out poorly and far from convincing, while the look and story of the movie also never made this movie feel far from a realistic one you're watching here.

The movie also has some pretty stupid developments in it. The story is taking some wrong turns and actually keeps switch different styles, so you are never sure exactly what you are watching here and how you are supposed to take this movie. It even makes the movie somewhat confusing to follow at times, especially toward the end. It gets confusing because things seem poorly connected and don't get buildup and handled properly.

You just won't care about anything that happens in this movie, or about any of its characters. I seriously don't even remember any of their names, even while I only just finished watching the movie. None of them seemed to have a good and distinctive enough personality and the movie is lacking a good and clearly visible main character in it as well. Why and how was I supposed to root and care for persons in the first place who were stupid enough to mess with ghosts, for no good or apparent reason and in the process made some extremely poor and just plain stupid decisions.

It's also unforgivable that the movie is totally lacking any sense of tension and mystery. It would at least made the movie remotely interesting and also good to watch for those who can enjoy and appreciate a horror flick. No, there is not even any decent gore and the other effects, such as its makeup, are pretty much below average as well. Again, mostly due to its low budget probably.

Due to its more slow and subtle type of approach, I would even call this movie a boring one as well. That's also really because there is never happening anything original or surprising in this movie at all. About halfway through you'll most likely be done with it all and are just waiting for it to end. And yes, you might as well turn the movie off at that point, since it's not like the movie has a clever twist or anything else that makes this movie worthwhile in it, after that point.

A truly bad genre flick!

3/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This movie SUCKS!

[rayna_king93 · 1/10 · 4 November 2012]

Not only was the movie extremely cheesy, The acting was horrible. the guy who played Ray was probably the worst actor I've ever seen. The history of the Whaley House was all wrong(I would know, I live in San Diego and have been to the Whaley House many times).Violet Whaley killed herself in the shed outside, not in the actual house. Definitely not worth my $1.29 I paid to rent this movie. I was never even really scared throughout the whole thing. I laughed most of the time. If I could give it 0 stars I would! My boyfriend also thought it was awful and got bored for most of it. If you want an even better experience with the Whaley House, go actually visit it! The house they used in the movie doesn't even look like the actual house. The special effects were not at all realistic. Long story short, this movie SUCKED!

Not So bad

[john-gregorio43 · 7/10 · 6 August 2012]

This movie was OK. What i liked about it, as well as what i have read from other reviews is that it wasn't one of those home-video style movies. Those movies are quickly becoming old news and are growing tiresome. The acting was not the best in the world, however it was not terrible. I gave this a 7/10 based on the fact the the story behind the Whaley house is actually fairly interesting to read, and this movie added a great twist to it. The ending was fairly good, played out the storyline well. I would recommend this movie to people if they are looking for a scary movie that is not the typical Hollywood CGI fest of computer crap. This movie has its scenes but also has a pretty good story. Enjoy!!

Not Actually As Bad As I Expected

[gavin6942 · 4/10 · 1 July 2013]

A group of young people decide to break into the legendary Whaley House, and they bring with them two paranormal researchers. The expected result (for a horror film) happens.

Honestly, I did not think the film was all that bad. Not that it is good (it is not), and the acting is nothing special, but for a b-grade haunting film, it had potential. The gore, for example, was very nicely done. So if nothing else, the blood effects folks earned whatever spare change they made on this.

I also liked that although this story had two paranormal researchers, it did not dwell on their technical gadgets. On television shows that do this, it is so fake and boring to watch (and yet they keep making more seasons -- people are gullible). I especially liked when one of them made the comment (and then rant) about how you "cannot go to Wal-Mart and buy this stuff". Best part of the movie, hands down.

A corny horror and very poor ghost story

[DreamBliss · 2/10 · 4 October 2012]

Let's start with the pros: The movie is in 5.1 sound. The photography is good. The location is good.

Cons: Too much blood for a ghost story. For some reason people in the movie industry think we want tits and buckets of blood in a horror movie. Perhaps for a horror movie we do. But the sub-genre of the ghost story this is simply not necessary or wanted. Cheesy deaths. Borderline acting. Awful piano music sound track, repeating the same tune over and over. Bad, spit in your face ending. They end the movie poorly and then they rub the salt into the wound. Inexplicable happenings. A number of things vital to understanding the story are left out. I'm all for leaving the viewer to use their imagination. But sometimes there are things that have to be explained to understand the plot. I started getting sleepy during this. This is the worst sin a ghost story could commit. I never even startled slightly during it. Yes there are ghosts, but there is nothing really scary about any of them, except for one perhaps, and that one is not explained.

Summary: If you want a depressing and cheesy blood and gore horror flick then this is right up your ally. If you want a ghost story this will not satisfy. Asylum Entertainment did far better with, "The Haunting of Winchester House."

a big yawn

[trashgang · 3/10 · 13 December 2012]

I never had any problems with B-movies or movies coming from The Asylum as this one did. But this time I didn't like it at all. Nothing really was going on and the acting was bad. When one do get possessed it was a big laugh to see her eyes.

It is based on the Whaley House a thing existing in real life but I just couldn't care about it. The only thing I really enjoyed was the gratuitous nudity and even that was maybe a scare because their boobs were as fake as it could be. It's also that scene that contained a bit of blood.

Nevertheless, a lot liked this flick but I just couldn't care less. A waist of time and lucky I found it cheap.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 comedy 0/5

Summary

[jcwyoungs · 10/10 · 8 November 2012]

Absolutely insane film.

The acting was phenomenal and the plot was original with plenty of twists and turns to keep you enticed during your watch.

You should not watch this film if you are looking for a serious horror film but to have fun and a few crazy scares. It is a horror film and delivers plenty of thrilling moments for example when they are in the house and at night. The actors are very underrated and I would be surprised if they weren't scheduled for a Hollywood blockbuster within the next 1-2 years. Clever, twisted ending and is a definite mind puzzler. 10/10 without a doubt

You'd be a fool to miss it.

Surprised Me!

[davidfurlotte · 7/10 · 14 September 2012]

As I started to watch the movie, the first thing I noticed was that it was an Asylum picture and I was prepared to be turning it off after about 20 minutes or so.

BUT, I was surprised because it was actually pretty good and entertaining. It built up slowly and although it telegraphed most of the scary scenes, it allowed for some interesting bits.

The acting in the movie was reasonable. Nobody gave a performance that would be winning them awards anytime soon but nobody did such a horrible job that you were hoping they'd die shortly.

The beginning of the movie made me laugh even though you could see it coming and I was wondering if the whole movie was going to be a comedy but it certainly turned into a bona fide paranormal movie pretty quickly.

The ending was quite well done as well and the lead actress put out a pretty good job overall.

I recommend to watch it and enjoy the movie if you like movies about paranormal events. As I said, 7 out of 10, which in reality is an incredibly high score for anything from Asylum.

If you're wanting to get scared, don't watch cause you'll just end up laughing the whole time...

[shawn-18-205730 · 2/10 · 17 June 2013]

From the cover art on Netflix, I assumed this movie was going to be decent. Since it was from Asylum productions, I didn't expect much from it. I did however get a great laugh at the acting, it was just horrible- Like really BAD! I laughed so hard at the scene were that guy sees the dead girl in the garden, "oh f*** this..." then runs water pump and kills himself.. really?! REALLY!?! Not to mention the bad acting with the girls. The redheaded girl's acting was so bad, how do they find these people? I did rough through it until the end and would not recommend it to anyone else.

Plot: 3/5 Acting: 1/5 Production: 2/5 - background music was just bad!

The Haunting of Whaley House

[ladymorris28 · 1/10 · 25 January 2021]

More comedy than horror. Bad acting. Thought I was gonna watch something scary, but I was so wrong.

never really scary

[murdermanmat · 2/10 · 13 March 2018]

Maybe the main problems with this movie is the over the top acting "ray" and its simply not scary

Decent but constant F words

[teebear817 · 11 February 2021]

Not bad, acting is ok, but later it devolves into a curse filled movie. Constant use of the F word in the second half that makes it almost unwatchable. Odd, not too much swearing in the first half, but NON STOP swearing in the second half. They must have used the F word 50 -60 times. Is that really neccessary?? And as usual in any haunted house movie, anytime anything unusual happens, it comes with a HUGE bang sound almost shattering your ear drums. That had to have happened 30 times.

Wasn't as bad as it seemed overall

[prowlingrain · 5/10 · 28 August 2012]

Let me first say i'm not good a reviews, but I figured this movie deserved one.

When I first started watching this movie and realized I was chuckling more than I was scared, I knew to watch this movie differently than trying to be scared. It started out as more of a comedy, and yes you can tell it's intentional, about midway through it I had lost all hope, but I run a page myself, so I will always watch movies to the end, after some more laughs I was realizing that they were going for a more scary, boo side, a few jump scenes and threw in a case of mistaken identity, but it started to draw me in and I was getting into it. other than one death scene that just really is far-fetched, the last half of this movie is actually worth watching, the ending isn't really what I expected but enjoyed the twist. If your looking for a deep ghost story, go the other way, if you love horror including low budget (1,500.00 is low) then please watch it. Just step into it laughing and leave laughing and you'll enjoy it.

The Asylum does a haunted house movie...

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 11 November 2015]

They showed this on TV in the UK for Halloween. I was intrigued; after all, The Asylum are a studio best known for their rip-offs and their cheesy monster and disaster movies, so what would a straight haunted house film look like from the studio?

The answer is, not a lot. THE HAUNTING OF WHALEY HOUSE is as clichéd and predictable as you could imagine, and there's no other storyline than a group of amateur ghost hunters break into a haunted house and spend the night there. Inevitably the house has an evil history and the group are spooked by a sinister ghost, but this so so poorly conceived and poorly achieved that it's a difficult one to watch.

Venezuelan writer/director Jose Prendes seems to be a fan of the B-movie horror genre and yet you'd think he could create something a little more original, and less trite, than this outing. The acting is poor, the gore effects are plastered in in a bid to make something stick, and the only character I really liked was the British ghost hunter, played with relish by Howard McNair.

Cliché, much?

[lindasue-50133 · 1/10 · 7 November 2019]

Rule number one, never start a movie with a cliche. Rule number two, never start a movie with a cliche that is fat shaming. Rule number three, never fat shame. Where's that zero Stars option?

Creepy .

[bluesman-20 · 1 June 2013]

the Haunting of Whaley House . Cheaply made with little known actors who are just starting out. They might move up to better things once the experience comes. Haunted house kids break in get trapped vengeful ghosts. We've seen this movie over again and done better too. Some things are not explained. some things are done for the shock value. And again we've seen it done better in other movies. but there is something about this movie. Yes it's a cheaply made B-movie. But it's creepy and it's trying hard to present itself in a different original Style. It doesn't succeed on all levels. But it tries. You want a spooky creepy film ? try this. It's a few steps below the Evil Dead films. It's a few steps above children shouldn't play with dead things. All in all not a bad time waster.

The real Whaley House vs. a non-lookalike - a brief review

[justuscharles · 4/10 · 4 November 2014]

I once visited the Whaley House in Old Town, San Diego, and ordered this film THE HAUNTING OF WHALEY HOUSE from Amazon for that reason. I was immediately disappointed when the interior and exterior of the house did not in the least resemble the actual Whaley House when I took a tour. The original was constructed of brick blocks in the 1850's and did not look spooky in the least. I did listen to the stories told to us by the guides, and mention of these story tidbits did crop up in this fictional film, giving it a touch of authenticity and verisimilitude.

I didn't learn until I read reviews on this site that the film had not been shot in the actual Whaley House, even though a bonus extra on the disc showed the director making a comment about being limited by what they could do because they were filming it at an historical landmark. Really?

On my WordPress blog some time ago, and on some of the Facebook group sites,including my own, I made a list of my favorite all-time haunted house /ghost story movies. This list included THE UNINVITED (the original), THE HAUNTING (the original), and THE INNOCENTS. Needless to add, this Whaley House film would not make that list. THE QUIET ONES is a much-better film, and THE CONJURING is probably the best haunted house movie in recent years. See those instead of this.

Made about Whaleys, for Whaleys...

[natashabowiepinky · 3/10 · 17 October 2013]

Just put a bunch of obnoxious jerks in a haunted house, kill them off one by one with lots of gore and BOOS, put in at least one pointless nude scene and add an incredibly obvious 'twist' ending. Sounds like you've got it made, right? WRONG. There has to be some professionalism to all this, a level of finesse... and this is just a boring trudge through a brainless script targeted at the lowest common denominator, who might get off on this stuff while drunk one Halloween.

Which reminds me... last year I had the cutest little trick or treater ever. He stood there with his mother asking for sweeties, with his tablecloth ghostie costume coming down to his waist. He was far more frightening than anything in this movie. Perhaps they should get him for the sequel. If I was at college right now I would be writing a thesis entitled 'The Downfall Of The Modern Horror Film'. Unfortunately, that boat sailed some time ago. I still think its a good idea... Any takers? 3/10

Technically pretty ok but with some major issues

[RandomTard · 5/10 · 5 October 2021]

This haunted house horror was done surprisingly well, even the story was decent and the acting wasn't horrible even though the characters were (I'm looking at you criminal mastermind idiot). And of course the whole story kind of gets wrecked in the end by a stupid error.

Even with the faults it was a positive surprise.

Low budget horror: promising, yet not quite there.

[jazzan83 · 5/10 · 2 March 2013]

I have to admit, I nearly gave up watching this during the beginning scenes. But, then I thought, maybe it's suppose to be a funny sort of horror spoof. And to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure.

The acting, or script writing were the main culprits here. Some times, I would think, "Ah, here we go! Someone can act!" and then see a totally different character. One character just left me befuddled all together. The British talking medium. Again, I thought he was joking throughout most of it, and that in the end, "Hey, fooled you! I'm really just a tourist looking for some action!"...Or, something.

Also, and I know it was low budget, but if you can't produce realistic gore and makeup effects, go the Hitchcock way. Less, is sometimes best.

So, while I wouldn't say don't watch it, just keep in mind: low budget, sub-par acting, and early 80's special effects. And you're gold! Well, silver, k maybe that's even pushing it.