Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

chaugnurfaugn-269-83012 There are already plenty of reviews for this film that perfectly sum up the entire experience. A great movie, fantastic development, truly creepy atmospherics and psychological horror but a truly horrible ending.So instead of give my opinion of the movie, I'd like to present everyone who watched it and was deflated by the last scene with The Alternative Ending To Skeptic (The Haunting of Bryan Becket), written and produced by David Sharrock, budget zero. You may not like it, but it's my attempt to spice things up and give that last scene some bazoom instead of the reality which is something of a flacid wither.First a recap. Spoilers here, so if you haven't watched this movie, stop reading right now. I mean it. Look away. Go watch the real thing then come back and get the alternative ending, because you're going to want it.Bryan Becket (Tim Daly) is a skeptic. He doesn't believe in anything and follows the basic rules of skepticism. He has a pretty good bullsh*t radar and knows good science from bad science. He's a lawyer, so logic and a sound ability to analyze any given situation are strong points for him.When his aunt dies, Bryan is typically candid about his feelings. He doesn't have any. But he's thrilled that his aunt's death means he'll inherit an enormous Gothic mansion.Things are not going great between Bryan and his wife Robin so Bryan announces a trial separation (much to Robin's dismay) and moves into his aunt's house. When good buddy and business partner Sully (Tom Arnold) reveals that the aunt had a will and that the house has been left to a paranormal investigator working at the local college, Bryan is understandably miffed and goes in search of said professor. Their first meeting isn't particularly affable, but when Bryan starts seeing things in the house he seeks the professor's advice and discovers that the prof is just a big a skeptic as Bryan himself purports to be. For the rest, go watch the movie.The alternative final scene (relies on certain previous scenes being changed a bit. Namely that Cassie looks in the closet in her last scene before the end and that the Sully/Bryan scene doesn't take place in court near the end..."Cassie?" shouts Bryan. "Where are you?" He rings her mobile and, to his surprise, hears a ringing sound coming from under the blankets of the bed next to him. He pulls the covers back slowly to reveal Cassie's phone."What the?" Bryan picks up the phone and examines it with a puzzled frown. His eyes move across the room to crucifix closet - you know, the place his mother used to lock him for days at a time. He steps toward the door and puts his hand on the handle. Turns handle. Door creaks open. Flash of blood everywhere in the shadows. Blood on the notes, on the walls, on the statue of Mary.Flashback to Robin frowning at the closet door and heading over to open it as Bryan cowers behind his son. She screams, hands flying to her face. Cut to Bryan covered in blood, doing something on the floor. Cut to Bryan dragging the bodies into the closet 'ok mother? Can I go now?' Flashback to Sully scaring the sh*t out of everyone with his mask routine. But this time Bryan isn't laughing. Cut to Bryan dragging an unconscious Sully upstairs. Cut to Bryan opening the closet door and dragging Sully inside. Cut to Sully opening his eyes and screaming.Flashback to priest coming to visit and getting same treatment. Cut to Bryan having nice breakfast with Cassie and leaving, but then returning as she's peeking into the closet, looming up behind her. She screams at what she sees then Bryan hits her across the back of her head.Next scene: Bryan in the basement standing over the trunk. Lifts it slowly to reveal black bags, bloodied. A hand sticks out of one - Cassie's. He sobs as he looks up. A shadow cross his face. A doll shaped shadow, floating in the air. "Mother?" Whispers: "Bryan." Cut to credits.

Keith J. Ferguson As this movie was all lead-up and no end, I'll aim to restore the cosmic balance by making this review essentially all end with no real lead-up. NOTE: this review is, in it's entirety, nothing but one big spoiler.The ending: I have no problem with the ambiguity of never truly knowing whether or not everything was in the main character's mind. Almost any story well-told involving an ambiguous ending is essentially a story that's relating a tale about a situation in which "no one was certain about which was true, thus, it remained somewhat of a mystery." It's interesting to present situations about individuals or perhaps societies involved being conflicted over the nature of truth or of their reality. (I give a pass to "The Sopranos" which was a story about "the nature of these people" thus an event-oriented conclusion being arguably less of the point. And I stress "arguably.")HOWEVER... being unclear about whether or not the final scene was actually portraying Tim Daly's character as dead versus in an unconscious haze is just plain sloppy film-making. It's not like part of the mystery was that no one in the story's scenario would ever know if the stair fall killed him or not. Either he was still alive and thus interacted with people at some point after the fall, or his body was found and a funeral was held. Just leaving that part unclear merely leaves the audience in the dark over the actual context of what the final scene was even referring to, something that would've been mundanely clear to everyone within the context of the story itself. Again, either they had a funeral for him after his body was found or they simply talked to him the next day at work. In lieu of this clarification, the film is essentially saying, "And after he fell down the stairs, it would forever remain a mystery from that day forward to all those he knew as to whether he died in the fall, or in fact, survived and saw many of them at work the next day." Clearly, this makes no sense within any context of telling a story. Thus, the presentation of this film isn't a case of telling a story with an ambiguous, mysterious finale. This is simply a case of starting to tell a story without bothering to fully go through the process of telling it. Why bother then? Either finish the assignment or spare wasting our time and don't turn it in. An even bigger shame since the premise was engaging and the acting very good.

chasrar The movie begins and constructs itself with a pretty decent structure. It often shocks you with a sudden unexpected horror tricks and you've to spare those scenes even if your mind says that its a cliché. Suddenly, the movie ends with an epic conclusion of absurdity, leaving ton of unanswered questions, while you end up convincing yourself that," OK! its not a mystery, its a bad story". What happened to him? is he dead? is he knocked down? what happened to his wife? whats the purpose of the psychic girl if she didn't prove anything? is he imagining his mother repenting for her sins or as in her soul regrets her sins? A decent ending would be him crying in front of her wife, emotionally broke and showing some respect for the world and not being a jerk, who sees the world as a skeptic. But no the writer had to crown a masterpiece with a puddle of mud to create some kind of mystery which is out of fashion in horror movies these days. It could have been an 8 movie but below 6 now, and that's the price you pay by spoiling a perfect story.

hwthorn-1 I'm not going to add much to whats already been said except that the ending (for me) wasn't that vague. Christopher Armstead (Film Critics United) said this;"The final scene shows Bryan either dead or unconscious, once again a little boy, going to a sunny picnic with his mother. Either the mother's ghost is trying to atone for past sins or Bryan's subconscious is creating the mother he always wanted with choice two being the logical conclusion for me".I tend to lean toward the first choice. Thru death his mother has taken him back to the time he should have been the happiest and released him from all the turmoil and inhibitions the horrible experiences of his childhood placed on his life; albeit, he had to (die?) to get there. It is a ghost story after all.