The Story
A psychic investigative author hires a medium to investigate a haunted house at a supposed intersection for a highway of the dead. At first the medium finds his evidence easy to fabricate, it becomes too real however when he starts getting a little help from the other side. It seems the dead don’t believe in impersonation as the highest form of flattery.
The Characters
This is a gothic love story that takes place in a haunted house. There’s only a handful of characters in the movie, and I thought their development was well thought out. It was handled in a very traditional manner, everything was played very straight faced, so I found they sometimes came off as wooden or dull. Likable personalities were unfortunately missing, so I didn’t really care about anyone. This one felt like it was for the lady’s with the amount of nude dude on display, but thankfully the gents walk away with a smile care of the girl next door look of the author played by Sophie Ward who doesn’t mind showing off her talents in the sack to the camera.
Effects/Gore
We go into this mess hoping for a Book of Blood and thankfully eventually we get to see it, along with some gruesome ghouls.
Lasting Appeal
I’ll probably watch it again eventually because I own it, but I could understand a ‘once is enough’ attitude towards the movie. If I had seen it before I bought it I probably wouldn’t have bothered picking it up. I’m a bit of a collector though and if Clive Barker’s books of blood are all getting the movie treatment, most Clive Barker fans aren’t going to want a chapter missing.
Final Headcount
The movie just isn’t interesting enough given the subject matter. It feels too familiar and Paranormal Activity has set a new height for what to expect from the haunted house genre. Where that movie is witty, and fun, this one feels like it’s filled in the blanks a little too much to expand on the short story that it’s based on. The parts involving the book were quite gory and I thought worth my time, for that it gets a slightly above average score.
