Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

beorhouse What promises to be a ghost story turns out to be a tired murder mystery peopled with a mentally handicapped war veteran, an evolution-teaching psycho, a rapist, and an emotionally wounded nine year old. This one's not worth your time. Unless you like made-for-TV movie schlock.

bowmanblue If the answer is 'yes' then you might as well not read this review and not bother watching 'Blackwood.' Don't get me wrong – it's not bad. It's one and only problem is that it's so unoriginal that if you've even seen one previous supernatural/ghost story then you've basically seen this story (and quite possibly done better).A teacher moves his family into an old creepy house, largely against their wishes. Once there, spooky things start to happen. Every quarter of an hour you'll catch sight of a reflection that wasn't there, or a shadow in night which disappears upon investigation. If that sounds scary to you, maybe you will get something out of it. Personally, I grew out of thinking that was in any way spooky when I was about ten.The acting is nothing to write home about. That's not a criticism of the actors. They're good enough, as I've seen them in other things. However, they just go through the motions and you can see every vague sub-plot coming a mile off.It's a British film and, in typical British style, it's low budget. I know it's a bit unfair to expect a Brit-funded film to compete with Hollywood blockbusters when it comes to special effects, so I can't be too harsh on 'Blackwood' for not even trying. Don't expect hordes of monsters or vast action sequences interspersed with the story.It's a 'slow burner.' Possibly too slow for its own good. Basically, if you think that a door shutting on its own is scary, then you might like this. Otherwise, just watch one of your many other horror/ghost story DVDs that you probably already own. It's better.Now move along... nothing to see here.

umlaut_ampersand Watched this at last year's London Film Festival and was excited by a write-up that suggested elements of The Shining, The Others, maybe even Don't Look Now. Would have been particularly enjoyable to see a good British horror film and the cast and stills looked promising. Sadly, it's a terrible film. Think of a horror film cliché and you'll find it here. The acting is awful throughout (from the adults anyway, the boy in it was very good) and the dialogue pedestrian. Overall, the script is remarkably bad - no spoilers, but there are one or two moments where characters do things so out of character for a cheap bit of extra "tension" that they're genuinely laughable.Very surprised to see this has got a wider release. Could only recommend seeing it if there are no good comedies out as sadly you won't find a single scare or indeed original moment here.

filmcriticalmiss Saw this at a festival last year and wasn't sure it was going to get distribution, but, against what appeared to be the general feeling it looks like it has a distributor for August, so have decided to post my notes.The premise is the usual one for scary, strange-bump-in-the-night movies, emotionally challenged husband moves innocent family out of the big city and in to harms way. This is fine, after all, we all need to get our characters out of their comfort zones and into some kind of jeopardy, otherwise, 'Lassie' for example, would never have been made.I totally love these type of films, but what follows is unfortunately something of a mash up of all the things you've seen before that have to appear in a make-'em-jump movie. Now, of course, we could try to to convince ourselves (a la Ben Affleck's speech to Col Dolittle in 'Pearl Harbour), that copying others is not bad, its an 'homage'. But then that would force you to accept the US remake of 'The Vanishing' was an 'homage' to George Sluizer's truly taut original. So we see 'Blackwood' is a fairly lame regurgitation of all the familiar tropes, there is a twist at the end, but if you don't spot it a mile you should pop out and show yourself a good time more often, either that or you've dozed off at some point. So all in all, not so unlike Lassie, a little bit more than just a dog.