I "Really Liked It" Haunter: A good starter horror movie for teens looking for something original

My wife and I watched Haunter, and it was a pretty average movie with a somewhat original idea. Anyone that has seen the movie The Others, pretty much knows this movie, but whereas The Others goes for a more adult story, this one is set up perfectly for teenagers.

            Haunter is a good movie that almost feels like a longer episode of Medium or something along those lines. My wife loved Medium and I saw a few episodes but it was never really my thing.

            The pacing of Haunter is good and the creepyness is well done, and even though we knew almost exactly what was going to happen throughout the movie, there were brief moments that threw little curve balls that were never enough to shake the whole movie up, but were enough to make us comment how that thing was original, or how they did that thing was cool. We kept watching it because of those moments. This movie very easily could have put me to sleep but the moments that shined through the rest of the movie were enough to keep me interested  . . . and awake.

            Though I haven’t seen or read many teen movies, or movies based on popular teen books, I’m guessing that this movie would appeal to those who enjoy movies like that. The teen daughter is quick to catch everything that is wrong and her dumb parents are not, in fact that almost persecute her for trying to point things out that would involve the parents listening to her and believing in her.

            This movie is – like the teen books – a good starter for a teen to watch and see that a movie does not have to be about the usual monsters, and if it involves ghosts it does not have to show them or their situation in the usual way. This movie gives a younger audience a fresh look on the haunted house scenario and would hopefully send them away with the idea that doing something different with something that is well known is a good thing. It can be a miss, and more often than not it is, but there are times when the chance taken works out, but whether it works out or not, the chance taken is always better than the chance not taken.

            There were two things that made me like this movie. The first was the first girl’s dad, he did a great job here, and was the main reason I kept watching because his change from good father to pretty horrible and creepy as hell father was great. The whole set up when he changes, from the little boy waking his sister up by telling her that he’s hiding and then she hears the fighting going on, it was then – it was moments like that – that my wife and I did not know what was going to happen, nor did we know yet what exactly was happening to him. It was a great scene that was well done by everyone in the movie, as well as those who directed it and set it up.

            The other thing that saved this movie was Stephen McHattie. That guy is great in everything that he does, and here is no exception. I have been a fan of this guy since I saw Pontypool and am always on the lookout for anything that he is in. Know what, parents, need some alone time? Have teens? Put Haunter on for them in one room and then you guys watch Pontypool in the other. My Valentines Day present to you.

We "Didn't Like It" Dark Touch

Dark Touch is a disappointing horror movie that, once you figure out what’s going on, loses anything of interest. It’s well done, and at times pretty intense (it has probably the largest dead children count in any movie I’ve ever seen, and the fire at the birthday party was nicely done and very creepy) but the good scenes are not enough to carry the rest of the movie.

            They force the adults to be evil, even when it completely goes against their characters, and that’s enough to ruin the movie. How can you feel sympathy for a girl getting slapped by a woman who was nothing but extremely nice and patient with that girl the entire movie.

            When she slaps the girl it’s comical because it is so unbelievable.

            The girl’s screaming, I get it, but she’s screaming because her family is dead and she’s adjusting and you’re making her do something out of her comfort zone. She’s gonna throw a fit and freak out and you’re there to help her work through it all, not slap the shit out of her to get her to be a “good girl”. Seriously? So when the girl hears that she got slapped because she needed to be a good girl she starts to pull up her nightgown (I guess to get spanked?) and the husband and wife who have taken her in tell her to stop. She does, and right then the man says he’ll sleep in the girl’s room that night. Seriously? Maybe it’s just my wife and I, and we’re sick or something, but we thought the guy was up to something. He wasn’t, but Jesus, it was weird.

            Now my wife and I don’t make assumptions like that all the time, it’s just the way the scene was set up. From the girl almost pulling her underwear down right to the husband and wife who say stop, then to the husband who says “I’ll sleep in here with her tonight”, it was just weird and uncomfortable.

            The story could have been good and interesting and even scary (though my wife didn’t think so, and thought the movie had nothing good about it), and again at times it was on the border to being creepy but it couldn’t come back from where the poor scenes had taken it.

            I found it difficult to stay awake during the movie, though I was in and out through out the middle, I was able to track with most things, and the things I had questions about my wife who had been watching it all the way through couldn’t give me answers.

            The movie was vague at times when it didn’t really need to be, and like the lesser scenes of the movie, the vagueness detracted from what could have been a good movie, or at least a good story. The forcefulness of the movie to get we the audience to fear the girl and also feel sorry for her was successful in simply making us not believe her or any of the situations, while the vagueness of the movie kept us from understanding and made us feel like the movie was poorly edited or more likely poorly done.