The Enfield Haunting
The Enfield Haunting
| 03 May 2015 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
    GazerRise Fantastic!
    SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling
    filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
    Leofwine_draca THE ENFIELD HAUNTING is a three-part miniseries dramatisation of the famous real-life poltergeist case from 1977, in which psychic investigators Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair researched the plight of two sisters who were being haunted by a ghost in their own bedroom.It was a hugely influential storyline and one which still sends shivers up my spine; to date, the BBC mockumentary GHOSTWATCH has been the best adaptation of the material despite making up its own storyline. Sadly, this version of events is heavily fictionalised, and too obsessed with having the main characters emotionally involved with the storyline.It seems you can't just have characters investigating a ghost anymore. There have to be back stories, emotionally wrought moments, and family scenes for the investigators (Juliet Stevenson is a good actress but her character is entirely redundant here). I don't think any of it actually happened in the real case, but if that's what viewers want, right? Well, not this one. Although Playfair himself was involved in the script, I blame Joshua St. Johnston, whose track record is hardly appropriate for horror-themed fare.Although the 1970s setting is an effective one, too much of this show feels like an EXORCIST clone at times. The possession scenes are often repetitive, and the visions of the old man are cheesy rather than scary. Sadly the filmmakers today feel that more is better when it comes to ghost stuff, so you get ridiculous films like INSIDIOUS filling cinemas and inspiring others to approach material in the same way. A subtle approach instead would have worked wonders. What you're left with is a pair of excellent performances from the completely reliable Timothy Spall and Matthew Macfadyen, and not a whole lot else.
    GL84 After a strange series of incidents in their home, a family's seemingly unending attacks by an unseen force attacking them for a special secret involving their sordid past and try to find a way of ending the threats before they continue.For the most part this here was quite the problematic and disappointing miniseries effort though there's still some rather enjoyable elements here. Among the biggest problems here is the fact that this one here is really just way too long for what it should be, taking up a large section of the film with just absolutely inane series of scenes here that take up plenty of time here. The incessant way it goes about featuring the family squabbles that go from their being absolutely at each other's throats for infidelity or incestuous issues, to being at odds with the group of paranormal investigators one minute to actually believing them the next and then being absolutely overwhelmed with their past issues which all manage to hold this one down by being stretched out in terms of it's pace for far longer than it really should. This one really could've told many of these issues in a far shorter space of time, while also managing to display that absolutely irritating British manner of feeling so drawn-out and lagging with it's tempo that the pace is even further dragged out here. While the last-half twist of being trapped in the asylum while undergoing tests manages to feel quite logical, the fact that this seems far too ill-placed in here and just feels out-of-place in here. These issues here drop this one while the one thing this one does get right in here involves the film's actual haunting attacks. These are quite fun with the usual floating bodies, distorted voices and discharging projectiles around at the family where it gets quite chilling in the brief spurts where they get featured in this. They do lift this up out of the doldrums that the rest of the film features.Rated Unrated/R: Language, Violence and children-in-jeopardy.
    Spikeopath The Enfield Poltergeist was, to many of us growing up in 1970s Britain, a terrifying story. Between 1977 and 1979, a council house in Enfield, England, was supposedly the home to a poltergeist, the definition of which is noisy ghost. The main focus of the poltergeist activity was towards young Janet Hodgson, giving some credence to the experts belief that poltergeists hone in on pre-pubescent teenagers. The events at the house caused a media storm, enticing specialists, believers and sceptics to visit and fuel a fire that still simmers away today.Interestingly the title of this British production has it right, in that calling it a haunting at least doesn't lie to the viewers. As with Tobe Hooper's 1982 film, Poltergeist, the presence of a poltergeist spirit is pretty much a side-bar to another story, where Hooper's film went off to another dimension, Kristoffer Nyholm & Joshua St Johnston's film here dials into grief and absent parents, then choosing to grab demonic possession and mediums for its big shocks.Many liberties have been taken with the facts, with added outside interests brought in to flesh a story out. Though the core essence of the story, the suspicions of truth etc, remain. The Enfield Haunting is a grand and unsettling production, undeniably scary for those that buy into the possibility of a haunting of this type being real. The performances are led by quality thespians, Timothy Spall and Juliet Stevenson, both of whom play grief and distress with a shattering conviction, and young Eleanor Worthington Cox as Janet is a bundle of exciting promise. Period detail is first class, though the house used here is some way away from the actual house of the events, while the opening credits are superb, even if they only tantalise as regards the alleged events in the girls' bedroom and disappointingly don't form part of this story.If this pic has longevity of interest in its own land, or even being capable of garnering interest away from the shores of the UK? Is tricky to say at this point. Because ultimately it plays out with familiar horror conventions, like it's cashing in on the recent cravings for Conjuring and Insidious kinks. Ironically, the team behind The Conjuring have reconvened to make a sequel - about The Enfield Poltergeist. Now I wonder if that one will actually be about a poltergeist... 8/10
    xsophietaylorx I saw the adverts for the Enfield haunting and was so excited and I have not been disappointed I think the Enfield Haunting is a great believable representation of the events that actually occurred. It's scary but it's not with the usual stupid scares it's eerie it makes you think about it after you've watched it really does imprint on your opinion of the paranormal. Timothy Spall's acting as usual is brilliant and so very believable. I also think the little girl who plays Janet will go very far her she is also very talented in acting by her portrayal in the Enfield Haunting. The Enfield haunting is just great really, great actors, great representation great everything! It's so fascinating that the events actually happened it's made me want to read more into the events of the Enfield Haunting. The only negative I will have to mention is that Sky Living most definitely take the shine of it with the amount of adverts they ram Into the programme you get to see around 5 minutes of the programme and then an advert. Seeing as there's only three episodes you think they would have the Curtisy not to do this. the Enfield haunting probably could have managed to be a short film rather then the three episodes. However it is most definitely worth the watch.