Watch The Haunted For Free

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

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Straight-to-TV, inspired by true events hokum… well that's what I thought I was getting myself into. However this dramatised case is a surprisingly eerie, bizarre and downplayed supernatural case that can get under our skin because the actual performances (the Smurls family) are sympathetically portrayed. The normal plot mechanics of the haunted house sub-genre are evident, and the atmosphere isn't particularly striking as it hangs there. You might think that if you see one, you've seen them all. But the predictable material does get more compelling further down the track, before coming to an unfulfilled abrupt conclusion that wraps it up. Everything (from the performances to the script) is done straight-face, with very little in the way of hysteria and humour. Patchy, but it works for most part. It heavily relies on story and mood, than say big special effects and lashing thrills. Although there's something just spooky about those reappearing spirit manifestations. Sally Kirkland and Jeffery DeMunn are capably good in the lead roles of Janet and Jack Smurl. Robert Mandel's crisply well-judged direction and Richard Bellis' hovering score added to the above-average production. I see plenty of jabs about the slow, ponderous pace, but I didn't feel it was that sluggish. Far from it. Slow, but not dull.

As a lover of TV movies and supernatural drama I was hoping for the best with this film.But it must rank as one of the lamest cheapest and just plain stupidest movies ever made.. The script was appalling and Diane Baker,(a fine actress),must surely be embarrassed by allowing herself to get involved in such nonsense. The parents were clearly a pair of compulsive liars who needlessly and nastily scared the life out of their children, to make a few bucks from their book. Janet Smurf comes across as a chain smoking mental case.And whats with all the praying when if anything it appeared more like the work of a poltergeist?.They even mention it getting it's power from the girls some of whom are entering puberty.I'm not sure whether it was the film or the actual family who were getting confused from all the hysteria and deceit. I gave the film a 2. But if you view it as a comedy it deserves an 8!!..

This made-for-TV horror/ghost story is suspenseful, somber, sometimes slow and at times far from believability. THE HAUNTED is partially based on a book by Jack Smurl and eyewitness testimony. In the mid-1980s, a Pittston, Pennsylavania family...the Smurls...start noticing things are just not right with their home. Not really believing in spirits, Janet Smurl(Sally Kirkland)is forced to realize and has a hard time convincing her husband Jack(Jeffrey DeMunn), until minions of Satan go to work slamming doors, smashing household items and bedeviling with imitation of family voices. Spooky and scary? Just a bit.The cast also features: Joyce Van Patten, Diane Baker, John Mallory Asher, William O'Connnell and Louise Latham.

Not only is this a weak haunted house story (although based on a true life story), but the acting and direction is downright foolish and unconvincing. The special effects are possibly the worst feature of all, with the demons completely lacking any sort of evil presence and simply shapeless blobs.You have to wonder how someone like DIANE BAKER got talked into doing this turkey. She's just one of a series of people who try to rid the house of demons at the request of homeowners JEFFREY DeMUNN and SALLY KIRKLAND. Kirkland's awkward handling of cigarettes, together with her over-the-top performance, is distracting, to say the least. Of all the adults in the cast, DeMunn is the most competent.But nothing happens that hasn't been featured in a dozen other stories about haunted houses in normal looking neighborhoods. This shows its made-for-TV origins in every scene and compares unfavorably to many other stories told on any number of cable stations dealing with real tales of haunted homes.Not recommended--nor does it have a satisfying ending--merely a message on the screen that a few years later a better exorcism was sanctioned by the Catholic Church and this time it was successful.