When I first sat down to watch this movie, I had the notion that it would be something that would not be that good. Just looking at the ratings, I knew that I probably would be telling myself at the end of it that "I just wasted time on this!" Well, all I can say is that I knew what I was going to say, and I ended up saying it.
The first thing that I would like to say is that I pretty much would consider the title of this movie to be "The Rose Door", being that very little of what happened to any of the central characters in this movie actually happened in the marsh and it all happened behind the Rose door.
So, on to the story. To sum up the story, basically it the classic ghost story that tries to through in a few twists in the mix. I won't go into great detail about the story, just to say that it is about Claire Holloway, performed by Gabrielle Anwar, who is hunted by nightmares and feels the need to find out clues to what is going on in these nightmares. She sees a house in her dreams and decides to investigate it. This is how she ends up in a small town at the house from her dreams, which happens to have a marsh as it's front yard.
Of course she tries to make sense of the things going on in the house, so she goes to Geoffry Hunt, played by Forrest Whitaker, who just so happens to be a paranormal expert of sorts. No matter how good of an actor Whitaker is, I just could not see him as a paranormal expert so I was already somewhat mystified by his casting.
This is where I will end my description because I don't want to give everything away, even though I do have to bring up some spoilers just to prove my point. To clarify my ratings though, I will point out a few things that I thought was lacking.
First, the entire process of Claire finding out important events to the little girl's story seems to be a little drawn out. Usually, I'm all for a movie that wants to be thorough in this regard, but for me this movie seemed to want to force this feeling onto me and ended up failing miserably.
Also, there was no tension in this movie, whatsoever. I mean, for a supposed horror movie, I believe tension is what can make or brake it. Having drawn out death scenes where the tension is built up is fine, but to not have any unexpected tension elsewhere in the movie will make it seem stale when death scenes do come around.
The last thing that irritated me about this movie was that ending. Specifically, the scene with Geoffry, Claire, and Phillip getting the blanket back. I don't know if the writers or the director was trying to give any redeeming value to Phillip or Phillip's son or not, but here is my reasoning for being so upset about this scene. I felt they were trying to force me to be sorry for Phillip's family. Why would I feel sorry for this man who, not only knowing allowed his son to be brought up by a despicable mother in which he explained to them when he gave them blanket, but in some respect allowed his son to be a deviant in the first place? Was it not his son that killed the girl and stated that they should all just keep quite and let his father handle it? There had to be a reason the son thought he could go to daddy to clear things up.
In the end, I wasn't disappointed by the acting. I would have given this movie a lower rating if it had not been for the decent acting. The visual effects, though sparse, where actually pretty good and weren't overly done. Other than the casting of Whitaker as previously mentioned, I thought the rest of the cast where believable.
The first thing that I would like to say is that I pretty much would consider the title of this movie to be "The Rose Door", being that very little of what happened to any of the central characters in this movie actually happened in the marsh and it all happened behind the Rose door.
So, on to the story. To sum up the story, basically it the classic ghost story that tries to through in a few twists in the mix. I won't go into great detail about the story, just to say that it is about Claire Holloway, performed by Gabrielle Anwar, who is hunted by nightmares and feels the need to find out clues to what is going on in these nightmares. She sees a house in her dreams and decides to investigate it. This is how she ends up in a small town at the house from her dreams, which happens to have a marsh as it's front yard.
Of course she tries to make sense of the things going on in the house, so she goes to Geoffry Hunt, played by Forrest Whitaker, who just so happens to be a paranormal expert of sorts. No matter how good of an actor Whitaker is, I just could not see him as a paranormal expert so I was already somewhat mystified by his casting.
This is where I will end my description because I don't want to give everything away, even though I do have to bring up some spoilers just to prove my point. To clarify my ratings though, I will point out a few things that I thought was lacking.
First, the entire process of Claire finding out important events to the little girl's story seems to be a little drawn out. Usually, I'm all for a movie that wants to be thorough in this regard, but for me this movie seemed to want to force this feeling onto me and ended up failing miserably.
Also, there was no tension in this movie, whatsoever. I mean, for a supposed horror movie, I believe tension is what can make or brake it. Having drawn out death scenes where the tension is built up is fine, but to not have any unexpected tension elsewhere in the movie will make it seem stale when death scenes do come around.
The last thing that irritated me about this movie was that ending. Specifically, the scene with Geoffry, Claire, and Phillip getting the blanket back. I don't know if the writers or the director was trying to give any redeeming value to Phillip or Phillip's son or not, but here is my reasoning for being so upset about this scene. I felt they were trying to force me to be sorry for Phillip's family. Why would I feel sorry for this man who, not only knowing allowed his son to be brought up by a despicable mother in which he explained to them when he gave them blanket, but in some respect allowed his son to be a deviant in the first place? Was it not his son that killed the girl and stated that they should all just keep quite and let his father handle it? There had to be a reason the son thought he could go to daddy to clear things up.
In the end, I wasn't disappointed by the acting. I would have given this movie a lower rating if it had not been for the decent acting. The visual effects, though sparse, where actually pretty good and weren't overly done. Other than the casting of Whitaker as previously mentioned, I thought the rest of the cast where believable.