Director: Adam Robitel.
Starring: Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Kirk Acevedo.
I believe this to be the forth of the series, another for this new age of horror relating very much to films like Ouija, Annabelle and The Conjuring. It’s another film to add to Blum House Productions ever growing portfolio.
It’s the final, and in round about way connecting and concluding part thus far, that written by original story creator, Leigh Whannell, who also stars in the franchise, including this one, as Specs, one of the paranormal investigators. And this segment returns to its roots.
Elisa Rainier, gifted paranormal investigator with the ability of seeing ghosts, wakes from a childhood nightmare and then receives a phone call from someone desperately seeking help claiming to have moved into a haunted house. Coincidentally it’s the same house Elisa grew up in as a child and is of course reluctant to go.
After some little thought, (103runtime to rush though) Elisa agrees to go and confront her childhood fears, taking juvenile-behaving ghostbusters Tucker and Specs with her to assist in the investigation. And what she finds is more than just evil, there’s plenty of flashbacks, some family reunions, spiritual kidnappings and a slightly predictable revelation, which makes me think Whannell was writing this as they went along.
Though it does really try and on paper the script and story probably looked amazing, and there’s some great touches but unfortunately it’s just poorly executed, acted and concluded. The conclusion here is unfortunately too laughable, and too soft for a horror. In fact the duo of Tucker and Specs, though quite funny, provides too much comedy relief for this type of film.
I’m not sure how fans of the series will receive this but as a stand alone horror, it tries to be too smart but ends up too funny and not scary enough. It’s more of a straight-to-DVD/stream release, like a cheap sequel.
Running Time: 6
The Cast: 7
Performance: 5
Direction: 4
Story: 4
Script: 5
Creativity: 6
Soundtrack: 5
Job Description: 2
The Extra Bonus Point: 0
44% 4/10
