The House on Mansfield Street (2018) User Reviews

So much potential

[ArcherAdam · 4/10 · 5 October 2019]

First the good: The atmosphere was quite good for the type of movie that it was, and Nick was appropriately frightened without being over the top about it.. I initially liked Nick as a character - he's the type of guy you'd have a couple of beers with, and then spend the rest of the evening playing Call Of Duty,

The movie naturally, will earn comparisons to Paranormal Activity, which itself owes a lot to The Blair Witch Project, so that's not a big deal. I like that they, for the most part, decided to forego the shakycam, and instead made the choice to show some of the scares. The budget was nil, so good on them for knowing how to stretch it.

The not so good: The last 5 minutes of this movie were just silly, and I significantly lowered my rating because of it. Nick keeps insisting on catching the train to London, and yet still decides to sleep an extra two nights in this house, in the dark, clearly aware that things are quite wrong. It really does feel like they ran out of ideas, and decided to pad it a little.

In a way, it sort of assassinated Nick as a character because his choices during the last bit were just so dumb, one has to wonder how he made it as long as he did. It made it difficult to sympathize with him the longer the movie went on.

As far as Emma goes, she's pretty underdeveloped, and rather vanilla. I'm assuming she's supposed to be a demon, but it's the first time I've ever seen one in a movie that relies on a butcher knife to do in the protagonist.

You're an utter moron, Nick.

Demonic paranormal

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 27 September 2018]

The idea sounded very interesting and creative, so there was enough to make one want to see it. The cover looked quite eerie. So saw 'The House on Mansfield Street' with genuine interest and wanting to at least sort of like it even if it had many problems.

Seeing it, well 'The House on Mansfield Street' certainly did have many problems and it is pretty much exactly the same feelings had when watching a few other films recently. The bad news was that there was not an awful lot good, let alone great, about it, so it was difficult for me to sort of like it, the little that's good being far overshadowed by the bad. Having prepared myself to do that, that was disappointing. Not a terrible film or without redeeming qualities, and there is far worse out there of the genre and overall. Liked the concept for 'The House on Mansfield Street', despite it being found footage which always makes me feel nervous, the execution was just wanting.

'The House on Mansfield Street' at least didn't insult my intelligence. It at least didn't make me angry watching it. Despite giving it a relatively low score and negative review, it even didn't make me regret watching it altogether.

It started off quite promisingly in an unsettling sort of way.

Setting was quite spooky at times as was the lighting.

Unfortunately, 'The House on Mansfield Street' did lack tension and suspense and the infrequent creepiness was never that eerie and rather obvious. The script is stilted and very repetitive while the direction tends to be static and pedestrian. Even for the very minimal budget, 'The House on Mansfield Street' looked as though it was made in a rush and it shows in its cheap look. The acting reeks of inexperience.

Was let down by the story. Conceptually interesting and wasn't too bad starting, at least too there actually was one, but the dull pace, due to some very uneventful stretches in particularly the middle, and the muddled way it was structured, meaning things didn't make sense, cheapened things. The characters are flimsily developed and bland even though the actors do their best. It can feel vague and while nothing is intelligence insulting there is both ridiculousness and trying to take it too seriously.

Overall, well intentioned but weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Microbudget PARANORMAL ACTIVITY clone

[Armin_Nikkhah_Shirazi · 3/10 · 15 July 2023]

THE HOUSE ON MANSFIELD tells a simple story: Nick has just moved to the Nottingham/Sherwood area and soon after he begins to increasingly notice strange phenomena in his cottage. Might his neighbor Emma have something to do with this?

Fans of slow-burn found footage movies might actually like this. But essentially remaking PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007) failed to impress me. There was a bit of innovation with the extensive use of split screens, but because they were not used for any discernible purpose, it fell flat. Cinematic devices are only effective if they are used in the service of a well-chosen purpose.

To give an example, one effective use of the split screen could have been to increase the creep factor: say, he is investigating noises, and one split screen shows what he sees and the other shows his face. The next moment, the first split screen shows something that captures his and our attention in front of him, while the other split screen shows a threat slowly approaching him from behind. We see it, but he doesn't. This would be the found footage version of the trope of approaching danger missed by the unaware character.

This is a slow-paced movie, and especially in the first half, the pace is glacial. The second half picks up a little, but not much. The protagonist is so dismissive of the obvious paranormal events which he not only witnesses but actually records on his camera that it starts to become annoyingly unrealistic. Most people would freak out way before he does. He also seems strangely passive in the face of an increasingly menacing threat. As a character, he is drawn neither realistically nor well.

Another shortcoming to me was that the story did not even use any local legend; I would have thought that the area, famous for Robin Hood and medieval history, would have been a rich source, and these could have helped, for example, with building atmosphere and making sense out of why the events in the movie occur.

There is a small twist at the very end, but it leaves you pretty much just as baffled as before. Without a mythology, explanation, rhyme or reason, it is very hard to make a good or at least satisfying found footage horror movie.

The director evidently created a series of these "Haunted in Sherwood" movies, which I have not seen. By cross-referencing them to each other, he could build up a universe with its own mythology, and thereby avoid one substantial lack of this movie.

His breathing and needing to explain what we saw is annoying

[mscarter-05266 · 2/10 · 24 July 2023]

The movie itself had some great moments of "wtf?" and suspense. I think it fits for what the genre lol. But my review is based on two things. I was incredibly annoyed with his breathing and his need to explain basic things! This actor is extremely "breathy" if that's a word. It constantly sounds like he just came back from a brisk walk and needs to catch his breath. It also sounded like he was breathing too close to the microphone?? So the sound was exaggerated during most of the movie. It is awful! Also i don't see why he needs to explain what he saw when we saw it with him lol. For example, when he took the camera to go get the thing in the attic. He comes down and explains what he did 😂.....like he didn't take the camera with him😂😂😂. Why not just jump into what you thought???

nice youtube video

[badheadcontent · 1/10 · 13 July 2018]

I'd like to review this as a film, however that is out of the question. This cannot be called anything above "youtube video" and as such, well, good job figuring out the split screen on Premiere, guy! nice work figuring out how to import clips and how to save your project! Impressive that you had synced sound on most of the shots. Nice work there, not enough to subscribe to your channel or anything, obviously, but hey. I hope you spooked your grandparents with this! I'd give you a gold star but i don't wanna put ideas in your head... just don't do it again, ok?

Don't bother

[hcampbell-70473 · 2/10 · 5 July 2018]

Slow. The film equivalent of watching paint dry. "There's that noise again", Ya don't say. I appreciate what the filmmakers tried to to with basically no budget but the end result is predictable and bland. Pass this "house" up.

Boring And Unoriginal

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 2/10 · 2 December 2019]

-2 Boring but short thankfully.

-1 Ending is no payoff. Story is silly and not original at all.

Awful!

[lauramorton-39416 · 1/10 · 29 April 2020]

A terrible "film"... not worth the time. The fact the "ghost" is wearing a hoody is beyond a joke. Awkward acting and pointless plot. Do not bother!!

didn't know what to do with itself so it just ended

[phenomynouss · 6/10 · 14 July 2018]

With my having a lust for these types of films and rapidly running out of them on netflick or amazonprime, I am eager to watch what ever comes out. This one had the audacity to be British.

the one thing I love above all else in these types of films is subtlety. It's even better if it's so subtle as to leave it into question as to whether the events are even paranormal. my absolute favorite of this genre is "Leaving DC", also on amazonprime, in which the sole interactions at the start amount to little more than the sounds of someone chopping wood before escalating ever so slightly over time.

this film almost blows its load rather early, with a rather clear-cut revelation on film early on that threatens to remove all the subtlety of the "haunting". Thankfully the film moves on from it with more toned down occurrences, but it remains a glaring event that makes it pretty clear even in-universe what is happening despite the protagonist's attempts to just ignore it.

From there, it goes on with its usual game of footsteps and setting off motion-activated cameras, with only one major deviation from this. The mood was right and the protagonist was not thoroughly unlikeable and so this was becoming fun to watch.

when it came time to end, it lost all its subtlety and mystique, going for a hackneyed ending marked by a plot twist that they themselves spoiled like 3 scenes earlier.

GCSE Drama acting and writing so illogical a 13 year old Wattpad user concocted it

[hayj1998 · 1/10 · 7 May 2023]

Myself and my partner fancied watching something scary last night and stumbled across this 'gem'.

So we both liked the idea of the paranormal element and the found footage premise, so gave it a go.

First off, the main character Nick is the most annoying 'pick me' man I've ever seen on screen (I may have also taken an immediate dislike to him because he looked and behaved like my ex) but every major thing that happens in this, he reacts to in a way that wouldn't make any sense in any real setting? The man will stumble across something harrowing and just react with gentle surprise and confused nonchalance.

The pacing in this film is kind of iffy too, and it doesn't necessarily draw you in to keep watching.

The ending is also kind of forced upon you in a very anticlimactic fashion, but at least it meant this particular piece of media had come to a close.

Thumbs up

[daveknowle · 10/10 · 13 June 2020]

I thought it was a good film, I've watched it a couple of times now as I'm a fan of these lost footage films , I would recommend to friends

7 Stars considering the budget.

[Puffadder69 · 7/10 · 17 September 2018]

There are a few bad reviews on here and they have prompted me to do my first review on IMDb as they bug me a little.

In the 'film budget' on IMDb it says this was made for £300 (just over $400). That's nothing and for the cost of the film I think this is worth 7 stars for the film work, effects and story.

Nice U.K. 'found footage' film with a good and different story and well worth a watch if you are in to this style.

I would be interested to see what the writer/main actor could do with a bigger budget.

The story doesn't make sense.

[calspace · 1/10 · 28 May 2023]

Look, when you first move into a place, you can explain away a number of things that might give you the creeps as mice in the attic or squirrels on the roof or the house settling. Maybe, depending on your history, you might think you're losing your mind. I think when you have proof on film of something in your bedroom while you're asleep, it doesn't matter if it's a person who has a passkey or someone who knows about a secret passage or if it's a ghost or a demon. You have proof something's in there that shouldn't be. You get out.

Nick doesn't. Nothing is presented as a reason why he wouldn't leave. He doesn't have angst over an empty bank account or a history of being cut off from his friends by a long-term abusive relationship. He has resources, but he doesn't use them until it's almost too late. And then, when he tries, he's blocked. He wants to take the train back to London, but there's a fire at the train station, so presumably no trains are going to be running for a few days. So he's back in his bedroom. Are there no cars to hire in the UK? Is there no coach service? Are there no hotels in Nottingham where he could stay?

Right before the ending of the movie there's some text that says that the footage that follows was pulled from the cloud and is presented on edited. So now you know, without even watching it, that Nick died. Do you have any idea how easy it would have been to have his friend, whom he's supposedly been communicating with this whole time, log onto Nick's cloud account and either watch footage that was uploaded earlier, or even in real time, so this information isn't given away?

Plus, it would have left things open for a sequel where the antagonist attaches to the friend.

Ridiculous. It taints the whole film.

What?

[natnightly · 1/10 · 8 October 2023]

An hour and fifteen minutes of a British guy wandering around with his face a few inches away from the lense. To be clear, I don't know what happened, this wasn't for a lack of trying to understand. There wasn't anything really going on, there's no plot, no setup, no questions answered. The moment the neighbor comes on screen, it's very clear she's a driving force behind everything, for some reason.

She gives him a weird pouch, he finds another in a ceiling panel (?), and decided to only throw that one away. As most people with functional critical thinking capabilities would deduce, the sacks are relevant, the one he found still being in the bin despite the clear passage of time, but that can be dismissed as paranormal, I guess.

Gigabrain gets the idea to cut them open, inside is a few herbs and crumpled segments of a Satan picture. A responsible person would do anything but stay at the place after that, but our dear Nick is not responsible.

No idea what the neighbor's deal is, whether she's a demon or a cultist, but she sucks at it because she has to stab him a considerable number of times. Either a ritual, or a demon who REALLY sucks at being a demon.

Give it a pass.

Painfully dull / Don't even bother

[j-nickturner · 1/10 · 7 April 2020]

The only thing that sets this no-budget found footage film apart from the rest is the use of multiple camera angles shown at once. Unfortunately, even that becomes grating after a while. The rest of the plot and the spooky bits. are nothing you haven't seen done better in other films.

Not to mention, the pacing is incredibly dull and there a long shots of literally nothing before something starts to happen. And when things do happen, they are poorly executed and not in the least bit scary. Even the main actor doesn't seem all that scared by what's happening. The way he reacts (or more accurately doesn't react) is like that of a lifeless potato.

Also, you can see the twist coming from the very beginning of the film.

I love low-budget FF but this was just a waste of time. Skip it.

Absolutely diabolical....and not in a good way!

[amylouisebaker · 1/10 · 18 November 2021]

Well....that's an hour or so I won't get back!

I know I know.....the reviews should have been a warning, but I like to give films like this the benefit of the doubt. I really wish I hadn't on this occasion. I was drawn to this film purely because I live not too far from Mansfield and it was refreshing to see a British take on this genre, which is usually dominated by American-made movies.

So the film is called 'Mansfield Street', set in Mansfield, and filmed by a guy called 'Richard Mansfield'. Coincidence? Or total BS? I should have picked up on this dodgy detail right at the beginning. The 'acting' is absolutely atrocious and in no way did I care, feel sympathy for, or route for the main character; in all honesty, I just wanted him to die spectacularly and for the film to end asap (the ending made the whole thing worth it, even if it wasn't spectacular!). I didnt care about his move from London, his wandering around Nottingham or his dodgy neighbour.

The concept was promising but the film just couldn't execute that promise. In the age of constant CCTV, video doorbells and mobile phone footage it was definitely relevant to current society. Unfortunately, the film doesn't add anything to the found-footage genre at all and is pale in comparison with other, similar films. As soon as you are introduced to the support character, you instantly know what part she plays and why; as soon as she handed over the 'gift' you can easily figure out the gift is the cause of all his problems. Also, when you see the ghost for the first time you can tell straight away that it isn't a ghost at all; why the hell would a ghost need a masquerade mask?!? Maybe it has crippling self-esteem issues....who knows! I'm not sure whether to view this film in a serious light, or if it is meant to be tongue in cheek. Either way, it doesn't work.

In a nutshell, the film is sluggish, boring, very amateurish, poorly filmed and acted and is a tired version of the found-footage genre. If I were new to this genre, this film would make me steer clear of similar films which is really sad.

The director must be an imbecile

[lilgypsy-96196 · 1/10 · 3 September 2018]

Seriously, who was the idiot that decided showing half the movie In split/tri screen was a good idea? It wasn't. Not only is the movie bad, but the story is stupid the main actor is terrible. Please for the sake of the art, don't ever try making a movie again.

This is the worst film I have ever had the displeasure of watching

[bgibbens · 1/10 · 20 November 2019]

The director doesn't understand pacing at all The film built no tension across it's entire 1 hour 14 minutes run time Predicted the storyline from the get go down to the time that he would wake up in the middle of the night The best bit of the film was the slight feeling of satisfaction seeing the terribly written (and acted) lead character die, although it goes straight back to a feeling of misery when the killer is revealed to be the most obvious person in the whole story. Overall, I wish I would have spent the 74 minutes pushing a barbed hook into the tip of my than torturing myself watching this. If you tell any one close to you to watch this film, you are a terrible friend/family member and you don't care for their mental wellbeing.

It's not bad you know

[reetpetite-51021 · 7/10 · 24 May 2023]

I actually don't understand the hate for this film, granted it wasn't amazing but it kept my interest for the whole time. The main actor was OK, the woman not so good and they seemed really awkward and unnatural together, but not the worst acting I've ever seen. I do like British horror though so maybe I'm biased. Don't know what else to say really but I have to add more characters before it will let me save this review which is irritating. Apparently this was made on a 500 quid budget which actually made me up my rating from a 6 to a 7. Some creepy bits in it and worth a watch if you have Prime and don't want to pay for a British found footage.

A Good Effort

[msroth-32441 · 5/10 · 17 January 2023]

I promised I would have a look at this tonight, so here I am. I binged the previous three films in the same universe yesterday, and wanted to see what the standalone was like. If you watched the previous 3, specifically the second one, you will see a familiar face. The minute you see this person, you will suspect what is going on if you assume the timeline is linear to the films. I did find the pacing a little drawn out, and the story was perhaps lacking substance for the full timeline of a feature film. I did appreciate the 3am references, but noted that things clearly happened in daylight hours as well. I would have liked to see a little more of the mythology they touched on in the third installment, perhaps next time. I will still be watching what comes of these, I think this world has promise. See you next time.

A reasonable film

[jackstupidjack · 8/10 · 17 December 2019]

Reportedly made on a budget of a few hundred GBP which would mean only a fool would expect anything approaching big studio quality. Richard Mansfield has gathered a cult following through his excellent adaptations of the ghost stories of MR James' (and others) so my expectations were slightly raised. What I found was a well made, well-paced found footage film , which while suffering from some of the tropes which so plague the genre (shaky camera, electrical interference etc), still came out as a pleasing effort overall. The story was solid enough, the production polished, the acting reasonably good, and well blended together. Mansfield has produced a film which without breaking any boundaries, entertains and keeps the viewer guessing, without totally flummoxing them, until the rather sudden ending. I felt another ten-twenty minutes to pad out the story , or back story if there was one, could have pushed the film further. All-in-all this production has made me look forward to more of his content in the future.

Another one to put on the shelf

[brandon_moovies · 6/10 · 19 July 2018]

This is like paranormal activity's brother from a different country, that was funny and not wasn't so intense. It plays a single man to me is already funny, starts with your typical moving objects and than the ghostly encounters, but theirs twist. I don't want to give anything away but most of the movie i was rooting for the ghost to win. This movie is, for the faint of heart, if your looking for a quick laugh and spook "this could be a biter"

Nice try

[theunholy-1 · 5/10 · 18 April 2023]

I knew from the start it wouldn't be a masterpiece. This movie looked like another copy of Paranormal Activity and that's exactly what it was, which I have to admit, is one of my guilty pleasures.

Contrary to all the bad reviews, I think it's actually not that bad. Acting is decent, so is directing. The only problem is the story, it starts well and there are a few good ideas along the way, but it lacks refinement and the ending is disappointing. The author should have spent more time on the script.

That being said, making that movie with only a few hundred pounds and basically no one is pretty impressive. It may look easy but it's not.

Possibly the worst film I've ever seen

[amy_jade_green · 1/10 · 21 August 2018]

I don't normally post reviews but I had to tell everyone to avoid this. Bad acting, awkward dialogue and really bad effects. No tension building whatsoever which I think is what it tried to achieve.

Awfully put together

[theguildoftheblackcrow · 1/10 · 26 March 2019]

Please be aware I am only 01:18s into the movie and it's already put me off. Badly edited sound is one thing I cannot bear. During the montage shot in the storage van after having left his old house and travelling to his new one, the sound of the van engine is at a constant rev between multiple cuts, completely unrealistic. And the V/O of him 'inside the van' was obviously ADR'd in a small room with bare, smooth walls. Not that type of reverb you'd expect to hear in a van. Rubbish.