A Haunting at Silver Falls (2013)

I could sum up this movie in three words: Stink, Stank, Stunk - but I'll add in Cheesy and Comical at some points. I wish I could get that hour and a half of my life back. It's too late for me - but spare yourself.

Moving to a quiet suburb after her parents' death, a teenage girl finds herself embroiled in a mystery by a pair of twin ghosts to solve their murder they may or may not be connected with her distant relatives she just moved in with.This is a rather enjoyable enough Lifetime Channel ghost story even if it's pretty familiar and generic most of the time. As far as these general types of 'Righting Wrong' style of ghost movies go, where they appear to someone in a plea to fix a mistake seen by many in the community who are grossly misled by the real perpetrators or part of it themselves, the horror comes from the fact that there's plenty of ghostly encounters out of nowhere or strange shocks that come up, but then drop off in order to invest in the mystery surrounding everything and finally at the end bring everything to a conclusion. That's how this one plays out, and it certainly hits those familiar notes quite well and often in the beginning which usually pulls out the clichéd notion of the victim thinking they've gone crazy constantly seeing ghosts everywhere which does make for this one being so run-of-the-mill and ordinary during this main section of the film. That the mystery this one becomes embroiled in has a pretty gruesome story at the center of it all does help the middle going while the teens investigate this and holds off the ghostly encounters until the end when the real culprit comes forward and centers the film around that new-found angle and brings back the ghostly happenings in a fun if admittedly dry finale. There's not a whole lot of real true horror in this one in terms of bloodletting, gore, dead bodies or such as the ghosts' preference is to help initiate the investigation into why they're there and killing off the one who'll do that won't help matters, so as long as that factor isn't an issue, this is a fine effort.Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence, Language, drug use and children-in-jeopardy.

Jordan's father died, so she comes to live with her aunt Anne, her deceased mother's twin sister, and her uncle Kevin. She goes on a date with Larry Parrish; Larry ends up being arrested for drug possession, and Jordan gets a ride home from Robbie. Larry is in line to be the school valedictorian, and Dr Parrish (Larry's father, a psychologist) is not amused.Jordan starts getting nocturnal visitors; one leaves candy wrappers, the other tries to pull off the ring she found in the woods while fleeing the cops after the 'date.'Larry tries to help Jordan get the ring off. It seems to work, but then the ring gets back on, somehow. Jordan's new parents bring up the things (an Hermes scarf, money from Kevin's wallet) found in her underwear drawer. The lock her in the bathroom using pennies while they have a night out by themselves. Then the ghosts try to drown her. Good planning there. She's soaking wet but the bathroom is not. Hm. They give her some haloperidol, an anti-psychotic. Oh, great. She sees the one ghost in daylight now.Her first visit with Dr. Parrish on a professional level does not go well. She sees the ghost in his office, cannot take her eyes off of it, and cannot tell hi about it. The doctor knows she is lying and concealing. Sigh. At school, Larry and Robbie are competing over her. Larry and Jordan ditch school and follow Jordan's ghost. Larry calls her parents and the Sheriff, who then stage an intervention.Jordan gets to meet Mr. Dahl, the father and the condemned killer of the twins, Heather and Holly Dahl. These are the ghosts Jordan has been seeing. Mr. Dahl gives her another ring, the second third of what used to be one ring. After she gets home, Jordan puts it on as well. She has quite the dream after that, featuring both twins. They warn her that she is next.Jordan finds the third part of the ring, and information that she did not expect.Will Jordan make it out alive?------Scores-------Cinematography: 8/10 Fairly good, but had a few problems, at least on Netflix.Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.Acting: 8/10 Steve Bacic was great; Erick Avari, an enduring favourite, was even better. James Cavlo was beyond bad. Except for him, I might have given this film a five of five. Alix Elizabeth Gitter was fine as Jordan.Screenplay: 8/10 Liked the story.

Almost a good horror movie.... Had elements of Sixth Sense, The Ring, The Gift, and Stir of Echoes (in fact, that's probably how the film was pitched to get it made). Problem was I saw all of those and they were all way better. It was decent though, and with the above being said, we kept watching. I did like the interaction of the ghosts with the main character. I also thought the acting was pretty good all around. Then came the last half hour. I came to a point where I wanted to turn it off, but I had already invested my time and wanted to see how it ended. With out giving anything away...I should've gone to bed. It's like the screenplay guy couldn't figure out how to end the movie and someone else came up with an idea to just get it over with. There seemed to be some great avenues to explore and they either didn't know how or wanted to try to be "clever". It did inspire me to post my first review on IMDb though...