Haunt (IFC Midnight)

[Holmes]

Available on demand and on iTunes now. Opens in limited theatrical release on March 7th.

My review:

This supernatural suspense film has a convincing and well-crafted exterior, but fails to find a satisfying rhythm and leads to an abrupt and underdeveloped conclusion. The storyline is the definition of standard-issue. There is the beautiful and isolated house left vacant for decades after a string of violent deaths. There is the family of outsiders, moving in for a fresh start. There are the subsequent bumps in the night. There are the brave teenagers who investigate, and there are the parents who are distracted and doubting, and so on and so forth. This is fine, though. Tried-and-true elements can still engage and jolt when executed well.

For a time, Haunt has promise: the house, located in a snow-swept forest, is a location with a genuine air of menace, with its long hallways and secret rooms. And the youthful protagonists are played well by Harrison Gilbertson and Liana Liberato. (People should remember her downright amazing turn alongside Clive Owen and Viola Davis in the undervalued Trust, playing a teenage girl whose life is upended by an act of statutory rape.) They generate a charming, quietly romantic energy, and it is hard not to sympathize with and root for them as they become more and more endangered. But the film is, no pun intended, haunted by a certain inherent mediocrity. It plays as if it is bored with itself due to the predictability of many plot points, such as an early indication of a supernatural presence via a sibling's new quote-unquote imaginary friend, and the rote, ungraceful touch with which they are run through. Despite the admirable haunted-house aesthetic and the strong performances, the content itself is never electrified or rendered interesting in any profound way.

** out of ***** or C