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Don't Believe the Hype

Best movie of this year hands down!

As Good As It Gets

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Paranormal investigators from a syndicated TV series get more than they bargained for when they set up to investigate a New Orleans home. Quentin French(Corin Nemic)just can't believe his paranormal investigation series is losing viewers and very close to being canceled. After all, shot in front of a "green screen" with special effects is not fooling serious viewers. Trying to save his job, the film crew is going to New Orleans to investigate a home that has been vacant a long time and carries the rumors of spooky things happening. No sooner than the co-star Heather Burns(Charisma Carpenter)and crew can get completely set up...the haunted house is beginning to prove itself. By the time self-centered French arrives in the rain, crew members are already experiencing supernatural activity. Some nice FX, but it now makes you start wondering about the actual shows you watch every week. Are they phony baloney? After all, how real does your enjoyment have to be? Carpenter is absolutely h-o-t! Also featured are: Ricky Wayne, Marcus Lyle Brown, Gregory Campo, Jake Austin Walker and Kyle Russell Clements. Not a total waste. There is even some laughs or two. That is if you are into sick humor. Actually filmed in Crowley, Louisiana.

A supposed reality show that does turn real as it progresses. Charisma Carpenter gets the lead billing and plays a sensitive. When she pulls the string of hair out of her mouth it gets a bit much. She won't leave the house because she says she is the only one that can help. The rest of the crew are pretty much unbelievers in the super natural based on their past shows. When they encounter an actually super natural occurrence they start to freak out. Corin Nemec is the shows star, is an egotistical pretty boy who thinks he is the cats meow, and shows up late for the filming and actually plays kind of a bit part. Marcus Lee Brown is the technical guy. The crew wants to bail on the project but the producer won't let them if they want to stay employed. The cute young bank agent played by Stephanie Honore unfortunately returns to the house and gets killed by shattered glass. The remaining crew finally believes and start a search for the source. They should have stayed together. Feeding the well so they can escape turns to be a bad idea. The end is a little unexpected as the producer goes to the dark side and kills everyone else. He continues on as an agent of the house.

To be honest, I was expecting House of Bones to be really bad. But actually, while heavily flawed it is not as bad as other SyFy movies. It is competently made, with decent editing and atmospheric lighting. Effects are kept at minimal and while nothing great when they are there they are much better than those in other SyFy efforts, not as fake-looking. Apart from an irritating performance from Corin Nemec and a disengaged Charisma Carpenter, the acting is about average, with nobody bad but also nobody standing out. The house is well-used and quite creepy, and the well-house twist was pretty nice. However, the sound effects and such are rather obvious sometimes, and the film is further brought down by a cheesy script, really obnoxious and stereotypical characters(especially the TV host), a story that while not dull is predictable, implausible(this may have been avoided if some of the ideas took slower to unfold) and completely let down by a suspense-less, downbeat and utterly ridiculous final third and too many scenes that are rather tame in alternative to unsettling. All in all, better than expected but nothing all that special at the end of the day. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This is an interesting take on the haunted house motif. Here the house "lives" off the bodies of its victims. Unfortunately this house doesn't take many victims on its own and when it does, its doesn't do as much as it could with them. For example, when a couple of bodies are disposed of within the house, there's an off-screen crunching sound and signs that the house is growing stronger from the nourishment, but these scenes are not that creepy.Also there are a couple of scenes that are entirely pointless and make little sense overall including a black shadow that roams around in a couple of scenes and tries to look scary but ultimately doesn't do anything.The film does excel in showing how the house distracts and separates the group even after the protagonists tell themselves not to split up when searching the house. Also, I'm glad to finally see a movie that realizes that eye trauma does not necessarily equate to death. A couple of lame jump scares aside, this film produces a creepy atmosphere similar to what Rose Red created, but not quite as intense as 1408. Its far from bad, but it could have been a lot better.