A few thoughts: How do you make a horror movie where the house is the villain without it coming across as corny or weird? Well, on one end you have 'Monster House', designed for younger audiences which treats the house as a very active living entity, and on the other end you have this, which takes a much more subtle and occasionally creepy approach. One thing that struck me about this on my second time through was how much bits and pieces of it remind me of 'The Shining', but ultimately much less effective. The acting is solid, and there's a decent amount of atmospheric tension, but when it comes to the based on real-life but still totally made up events that take place in this movie, it's hard for it to break free from the source material and offer up some great scares. There's only ever a vaguely threatening air of menace, and at roughly 2 hours, the running time does become a problem because of this. Still, this is a solid haunted house movie, I just wish they'd ratcheted up the tension a little bit better before the goofy over-the-top ending.
People in the mood for more classic thrills, and those who don't want or need their horror movies to be incredibly busy. It's slow, but relatively effective.
My grade: C
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