Haunting at the Rectory (2015)

It was initially the DVD cover that lured me in, because the front looked rather interesting. I read the synopsis and it sounded like this could have been an entertaining horror movie.Let me just be bluntly honest and say that I lasted a staggering 25 minutes before giving up. And believe you me, those 25 minutes were indeed a struggle to get through.The storyline in "A Haunting at the Rectory" was incredibly boring. And the fact that it was so slow paced didn't exactly help anything either.It is also weighed down by incredible shallow characters. But not only were the characters themselves part of the downward spiral, because the characters were portrayed by some questionable acting.I have absolutely no intention of returning to finish watching "A Haunting at the Rectory", because the storyline didn't appeal to me in the least, nor were I interested in the characters. And honestly, just too little was happening in the movie to make it even moderately interesting.

This movie is slow. It begins after the move into the home. Nothing to imply a super scary haunting. Actually the only thing scary about this movie was the acting. If you're looking for a white knuckle haunt movie keep driving. In fact unless you're looking for a lifetime movie decaffeinated keep going. Boring, slow, predictable. Young sexually frustrated housewife has an affair with live in handy man while bible wielding preacher husband is absent during the day. Hooray...........yawn.

This movie says it's based on the Foyster's experience at the Borley Rectory. It could also be said that "Soylent Green" is based on Ray Kroc's experience flipping burgers. That's about as far as "A Haunting at the Rectory" gets to telling the story about a haunting at the Borley Rectory. Having spoken to Marianne Foyster's son Vince, and having read Harry Price's book about the Rectory, and the Foysters, you come to realize "A Haunting at the Rectory" is a generic story glued on to the Rectory's history, and at least two real people involved in it. Had they at least provided something scary, I could give this movie a higher rating. But their theft of what really is a scary story, and turning it into a dull, melodramatic ride through a pastor's wife's discontent, a sleazy handyman's ruse, and a kind pastor's growing jealousy, oh- and some wandering "ghosts" thrown in because, you know, "Rectory" and all that, makes me realize they stole the Rectory's reputation just to sell the movie. This script could have happened anywhere, but I guess calling it "A Haunting at the 3rd Street Episcopal Church and Community Center," though just as applicable, would have been hard to fit on the DVD box spine.Too bad. I was hoping to experience the Borley Rectory's haunting. Instead, I got a barely recognizable one.

I thought this movie was supposed to be about a haunted place, but it is, in fact, about infidelity. The story focuses on the Reverend's wife and the handyman's affair almost exclusively; so much that the supposed "paranormal" events look totally out of place.This movie did not get anything right. It didn't look or feel like 1930 at all (I've seen documentaries about the 30s). The actors seemed wrong for their respective roles. The events were unrealistic and the characters' response to them illogical. The movie didn't seem to know where it wants to go or what it wants to do with itself.The paranormal events were so few, so exaggerated, discorded and random that it'd make you think that, perhaps, they were edited into this movie from another movie by mistake.The description: "A Reverend and his wife discover their new home has a deadly secret." O.K., what "deadly secret"? Unless I missed something, this "secret" was never revealed...I really don't understand the paranormal connection at all. This movies is about a cheating wife, not about paranormal activity. I didn't get what the ghost drivel, that was randomly shoved into a movie of entirely different genre, had to do with anything or what connection it was supposed to have to the story.Basically, the whole thing is poorly pieced together and a bit messy. Perhaps it would appeal to "drama"- or even "crime"-lovers, but to label it as "mystery" is highly misleading to say the least.