Review of Haunter (2013) by Abraham S — 12 Nov 2013

A convoluted, blurry plot is the fiery death of Vicenzo Natali's Haunter. I wanted to like this film but from the first ten minutes, there were a myriad of reasons why I shouldn't. The film works against itself, often establishing moderately atmospheric chills squandered by ridiculous anti climactic payoffs and ideas that folded over and on top of themselves so many times that you can't even be sure anymore whether or not the director knew what was going on.

Abigail Breslin is reliably good, however awkward coming into her own as a teenage star. Not much can be said for the rest of the cast - most of which I feel were horribly wrong for their roles. Haunter boasted some truly teriffic ideas and themes but it just couldn't figure out what to do with any of them and ended up tossing them into a soup of boiling, bubbling, atmospheric, smoggy shit.

I would likely watch this again for scary movie night but I would enjoy it five times less - mostly because I knew exactly the kind of disappointment I was in for.