Hello everyone.
I love a good ghost story or horror movie, based on a true story or not. Most especially, I love 'B' horror films
I know, there's no accounting for
taste.
Anyway, my roommate and I went out to see this movie. The movie actually made me jump 1 time and left me feeling creeped out about a half dozen times.
That's actually pretty good. If you like ghost stories, it's worth seeing on a matinee. Still this has been one of the better based on a true story
horror movies I've seen in awhile.
It would be awesome to be near this place. I once lived in Iowa and wasn't too far from Villisca Axe Murder House (where 8 people were murdered). I
kick myself for not taking the time to go visit the place. Anyway.
I've read a lot about this case from the Warren Files and watched the interviews and read some of the fact vs. fiction. Lorraine Warren also visited
and consulted on the set.
Overall the family stands behind this movie. The one who wrote the book about the family experiences there was even a consultant and the family
visited the set of the film too. They all said that some dramatizations were done and some of the facts were bent for the sake of a cohesive story and
it was made more intense (the time line was compressed like in the Lord of the Ring Series) since they basically had to cover 10 years (roughly 1970
to 1980)of living there in a 2 hour film.
Not a lot of 'based on true events' movies get the support of the people who were involved in the actual occurrences. That said, the 3rd act was
probably my least favorite, where they wrap it up neatly. Still though, many of the ghostly things that happened in the movie also correspond to
things that actually happened to the family members, so they might have more than just name involved in calling it a true story
The family just didn't leave because they were a family of 7 and had no one they could all stay with and they had sunk their money into the land and
property, all 200 acres of it, not just the little bit the film said they had. Though they did eventually have to sell most of the land.
There were a long series of deaths there from the previous family, which had lived there like 8 generations. Some were from suicides and hangings and
sickness. The whole Bathsheba Sherman subplot in the movie was very fictionalized, though that is the spirit they said was the main one causing the
bad haunting. But the real story and the movie one are one of the very different points.
The homes also look TOTALLY different. The one in the movie is a Manor and the one in real life is a farm house and barn.
The Doll in the movie is horribly creepy. The doll in real life is a raggedy Andy doll.
There were actually a lot of sprits in the house and most of them were not overly scary or harmful. It was when they did the séance and brought in
the spirit of Bathsheba Sherman that the harmful stuff started and that is what the movie does the focus on, sans the séance.
And to this day, the place is still haunted, but apparently it's all pretty calm these days.
Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good movie. One thing though - I HATE it when they put animals in frelling horror movies. So -1 star because of
animals in it. Otherwise, 3 starts out of 5 for me.
edit on 29-7-2013 by Thanatos0042 because: bad spelling