The recent spate of good horror movies is really making me rethink Hollywood - after years of mind-numbingly dumb horror flicks (basically anything other than Scream with a sequel), there have been some really good movies in the genre.
This is probably the second best of the bunch (Sorry, but The Sixth Sense was better, although not as frightening). Michelle Pfeiffer is excellent as the distraught housewife dealing with amnesia, a car wreck, her daughter leaving for college ... oh, and ghost intent on driving her crazy. Ford is good as the husband, although it isn't as dynamic as some of this other work. He plays his first non-hero part, and its a good change for him (although I would love to see him return as Han Solo).
I have been watching horror movies since I was a kid (remember Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series? I was watching that at 5 years old. Yeah, I'm a little sick), and very little scares me. Yeah, I'll jump when the boogie man comes out of the dark, but between the original Friday the 13th, Phantasm and Halloween and about 1998, there just wasn't anything that was worth a damn in the scary department. So, I went it hearing that it was 'scary' but took it with a grain of salt.
Although it wasn't 'jump out of your seat as your hair turns white' scary, the plot and the story do leave you with a bit of a chill (or was that the theatre AC? I'll give the movie the credit). Because it relies on old-fashioned tension fright rather than a 'jump out of the closet type' - although there are elements of that, too - I find that the thrill & scare are both enhanced. Pfeiffer's reactions to the ghost are fantastic and realistic. She sees it and immediately GETS OUT. No 'Hmm, I wonder what it might want. Maybe I'll take a nap and think about it' crud.
The movie moves along extremely well during the first half of the film but starts to slow down towards the end. Unfortunately, the first half is also where most of the really frightening parts are. From there, it becomes a spooky missing person/murder mystery which tends to take most of the steam out of the sails of the film. Personally, I feel that they could have made a better movie by changing the major plot that carries the second half of the film, but I didn't go to Columbia film school, so what the heck do I know, right?
Overall, however, the movie is very good. There is tension, there are ghosts and there is a good amount of scare in it. I would say don't wait for the DVD for this one - get out there and see it in a theatre. Also, keep an eye out at the very beginning of the movie and the last scene. There is a special treat for those who take a good look at the scenery...
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