Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Scarecrow-88 An independent movie studio connected to an old house with a history of violence is tormented by the vengeful ghoul that insists her home is not bulldozed over by other potential buyers. The head honcho of the studio (Billy Zane, who mostly looks bored and disinterested, with less-than-subtle hints of sarcasm in his performance towards the project he's stuck in) plans to finish his latest project then sell off the house with plans to move to a brand new studio but when the ghost of bad little girl Carly starts raising a violent, psychopathic ruckus, he might just have to consider. Zane's cast and crew will also be under siege and terror, attempting to escape but unable to do so, some meeting horrific ends, others trying to "negotiate" their way out of the place to safe freedom. Decent cast (the aforementioned Zane, Lacey Chabert, Matt Dallas, and Danielle Harris) is really trapped in a bad horror movie with variable special effects (primarily laughable) and some okay dark humor. The film can't escape a putrid low budget, and the cast running around a studio attempting to find safe haven from a ghoul (that pales in comparison to the Japanese Onyro ghouls so popular about ten years ago) that isn't all that scary doesn't help. There are some eerie dolls in a room, a nasty bit of business involving a mirror slashing (the ghoul can "manipulate" people into harming / killing themselves), and Zane trying to talk the ghoul into leaving them alone has a bit of funny to it. Harris is too good to be stuck in parts which do nothing with her and too often these days she is…this film especially wastes her talents. Chabert keeps on a serious face as does Dallas (as the put-upon rookie, placed with doing multiple duties due to the crew losing their head editor (B-movie vet, Richard Tyson) in the opening sequence), her lover, but the plot is anything but worthy of a straight performance…the content and effects accompanying it leave much to be desired. This is fit for syfy and that is not a compliment. I think Zane knows what kind of crap this is and his performance doesn't hide that fact. Carly's mother's back story is even linked to Charles Manson! Christine Bentley services the film as some nice eye candy in scantily clad outfits (she *almost* gets nude for a shower sequence) as Zane's "star" and Allyn Carrell is the creepy old lady with a story to tell and secrets to unveil. One truly funny and odd scene has Carrell just appearing and walking throughout the studio as Zane (and his kooky crew member Johnny (Adam Whittington, a very realistic loser)) is bewildered at how to get her to leave. The back story involving Jeanie and Carly's reasons for acting out are particularly weak but the film probably couldn't have made it out successfully regardless. Lynn Andrews III is the token black character (he is over the audio/sound department of the studio)who actually makes it out alive, but not without a few bumps and bruises.

chrismackey1972 Billy Zane plays the director of a music video, which is filmed in a studio that used to be the home of a girl, who is now dead. Her ghost is haunting the place, and Zane talks his sound techie into keeping quiet about it for fear of losing his crew. As the story proceeds, we are introduced to his crew and actors, many of whom are there to be kill bait for the malicious ghost. This was much better than I thought it was going to be, and it was done in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I like the twist towards the end where we find out about Charles Manson's (yes, the serial killer) kid. I found the movie surprisingly fun. It's not great, probably not even good, but it was entertaining. The special effects were nothing to brag about, but considering the budget was probably low, the effects weren't bad. Boobs, butt, blood, and gore are in this. There's plenty of gore to go around, though they didn't go crazy with it. Christine Bentley gets naked for a shower scene, and later, she is forced to stick her face into a fan, chopping it off.Billy Zane is hilarious. He can't get Laurel's name right. He keeps calling her Lauren.Lacey Chabert has become a really good actress, however,- as I said earlier - this is done in tongue-in-cheek fashion, so don't expect an Oscar worthy performance.Danielle Harris looks a lot like Chabert - they could be sisters. She does a good job on her role as one of the dancers who becomes possessed by the ghost.Christine Bentley has a hot body...it's even hotter in the nude scene. Overall, she's brought into the movie to be the big-boobed, blond sexpot.I gave this a 5-star rating because it was funny, entertaining, and it didn't hurt that the girls were hot. Oh, it was also somewhat original, as I've never seen a movie that had a ghost haunting a studio, not that I can remember anyway.

Shawn Stetsko So I thought I might get some laughs tonight and check out a horror comedy... disappointingly I got not much more than a handful of slight grins from this dull piece of work. While the acting is good, the effects are passable without evidently requiring much of a budget (if they had a real budget then shame on them), and the characters are not bad, it just doesn't have anything special to offer. In fact, the whole thing is stock... run of the mill... ho hum. Plot, dialog, pretty much everything is clichéd, but not in that meta sense where it is playing off of it for irony or even... gasp, humor. Therein lies the biggest disappointment, and I already said it once but I will repeat it... it just isn't very funny.Nor is it a really good horror. It does succeed in setting up a few creepy scenes... not really scary scenes, just creepy, but they, as stated, are not innovative. It has some okay deaths, although, again, they are not innovative. It has a basic plot with only the slightest variance from what we have pretty much seen a hundred times before. You would think with all the effort it takes to get the funding this movie must have needed, and to get the decent cast it has, someone might have really taken the time to have a better script.It is not a terrible movie by any means... there is a bit of skill involved here. If you don't expect anything going into it you might find it mildly entertaining. A mindless way to pass some minutes away. But if you go into it with any higher hopes than that, well...

Pressparr88 This is a bizarrely mismarketed low budget gem I had the pleasure of watching recently. The cast is well rounded (Zane,Chabert, and the lovely Danielle Harris), save for Matt Dallas who while easy on the eyes won't win any awards for this role. The principal location for the majority of the film does start to suffocate the film a little bit, and some of the usual low budget horror film setbacks are there as well, but that is to be expected.The plot is threaded in a bit harshly, and some of the effects are a bit stale, but the film is nothing less than entertaining, which is what it sets out to be. The film is more of a comedy with horror tendencies. It is not the type of film where you are on the edge of your seat with surprise, but more of a film that you can just sit back and enjoy. Don't let negative reviews keep you away, I was glad I didn't!