Buried Secrets (1996)

"Buried Secrets" is a decent ghost story with a couple of really big flaws.**SPOILERS**Arriving in White Cliffs, Maine, Annalisse Vellum, (Tiffani-Amer Thiessen) and her mother Laura, (Melinda Culea) move into a new home that has been abandoned for years. Trying to fix it up, she keeps having strange visions and dreams about the house, which is laughed off as unfinished grieving over her father. As she spends more time in the house, she find s herself communicating with Mary Roff, (Erika Flores) the deceased daughter of Clay Roff, (Tim Matheson) the town's mayor and tells her of another crime in the family that must be resolved before she can leave the property. Setting about trying to solve the mystery, she uncovers the horrible truth involving the different relationships in town and tries to right the wrong and free her friend from her existence.The Good News: This one had some good points when required. That several of the hauntings here aren't that bad is the main thing, as it's a really important fact to have a good series of haunting scenes in these kinds of films. There's some good ones in here, mainly because it's horror scenes were remembered to be horror. The very first encounter in the attic, when it's first apparent that there's a ghost on the property is really impressive, as the events that transpire are really great and actually creepy. From the uneasiness it has around the entire sequence and the creepy realization over the revelation, a couple of rather nice shots to prove the power is also just as good. The teleporting all over the house actually works nicely, and there's the eyeball trick which is just as good, and the repeated use of them is really great. Pretty much whenever it decides to go with the haunting route is good stuff. The lone sex scene does have some really nice partial nudity to enjoy. The only other part that works is how nice the mystery is handled. This one has a really decent one that is handled really well and comes off just as good. These here are the film's good parts.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot of flaws to this one. The main issue here is that the film is just way too slow-paced. Nearly nothing happens, because this one goes about bringing everything along at a way that just slows it down to the point of down to the point of irritation. There's no real need for it to be as such, making for a lot of confusing times when just making it really out there when it gets to the point it's taken so long to get there is either buried under three other plot-lines or the main point has been long-forgotten and needs to be restated in a long, drawn-out scene that shouldn't have been. That all of these scenes are all so low-key that it's impossible to get any sort of excitement about them, and it really hurts the film even more. That also affects the action in here, which is pretty low-key and not all that exciting. It's way too low-key to mean anything much at all. The last flaw is the PG-13 rating. This pretty much censors the film of pretty much anything, as it has to reign everything down in order to make sure it's not going to offend anything, and it's noticeably lacking anything that it really shouldn't have had in order to get over. From the sex scene taking place that obscures pretty much everything except for glimpses to their not being any kind of blood or gore, or even much violence at all in here except for the hauntings is really there and noticeable, and makes this one suffer a little more. All of these are what keep the film down.The Final Verdict: A somewhat decent, if unspectacular teeny-bopper ghost story that provides something interesting when it tries to. Give this a shot if it sounds like you're thing or are really into the more horror-drama entries available, while those who want more action in a film should heed caution.Rated PG-13: Mild Violence, Language, Partial Nudity and a mild, tame sex scene

Perhaps the creators of this silly spooker believed that, because it concerns an apparition-plagued abode, motivations behind the characters' behavior could be as difficult to grasp as the ghost herself! The actions and situations are often so preposterous that the audience may well be constantly wondering why anyone would do or say what the script just indicated! The open-minded can certainly accept the possibility of a haunting spirit, but one which possesses the living and turns blue eyes brown? Maybe it's about all one can expect from a T-A Thiessen peekaboo boobfest where even the spec shows pec! As always, Tim Matheson gives it the old college try in this half-jelled melodrama that totally wastes his talent and the viewer's time. Please--somebody secretly bury this flick!

I don´t understand how could some people enjoy this movie. It´s boring, I almost slept in front of TV watching this movie. The good part is Tiffani, wich is really very sexy. But the rest is boring, the action, thriller and horror scenes aren´t good. I rated it 5 of 10.

This is a pretty fair ghost/possession movie, but a lot of it is ridiculous. How can Tiffani be possessed if she's talking to the ghost. Isn't it supposed to be inside her ? The scares are tame and the story moves along like a run-down car. It stalls, moves, jumps and stalls again. Don't get me wrong, there's almost a decent ghost movie here, but Tiffani's figure seems to take center stage as the camera focuses on her chest, and a nice sight it is, and the viewer is teased with nearly topless scenes, but the plot seems to forget this is supposed to be a movie about a ghost seeking the truth behind her murder. Melinda Culea is all but absent from most of the movie as Tiffani's mother as if the "Shriek If You Know" star was stingy with the screen time and Tim Matheson appears in the movie as the father of the dead girl haunting Tiffani but his scenes are a bit disjointed from the script. This murder mystery as a ghost story does have some chilling moments, but there's no psychological build-up or atmosphere to set the pace. Tiffani instead spends some time dragging down the script by pursuing the boyfriend of the girl's ghost, but then if most girls suddenly looked like Tiffani, I assume they'd be doing the same thing. On the whole, I guess I rate this movie a five for a promising script that quickly gets lost and has to be patched together in the edit room.