American Poltergeist

source: American Poltergeist

Absolute drivel. This is quite far the worst film that I have ever seen. No need for spoilers as I was amused for the whole 1 hour 19 minutes especially at the lack of gravity in certain areas of the film. I will be recommending this film to my fellow film buffs by NOT TO WATCH. In all honesty I would rather watch paint dry and I will award 10, correction minus 10 out of 10. Not a good time to get busy with Lizzie. I am glad it wasn't any longer as I would be tempted to wash the cat. Rogeerabbit

Similar to another reviewer, I've just made an account to review this disaster of a film. Laughable 'horror', awful acting, ridiculous production and just a waste of time. Don't bother, you're more likely to find horror in Peppa Pig.

First off they say this movie was filmed at the Lizzie Bordens bed and breakfast in Fall River Massachusetts! 😂Well let me tell you I'm from Fall River Ma. The bed and breakfast looks nothing like that! They say it's in Fall River Massachusetts I don't know where they were not no it's not in Fall River! Movie sucked actors and actresses sucked as well!

American Poltergeist is one of those run of the mill, paint by numbers, you've seen it all before horrors but at let's you know early on that's what it is. Poorly made, with children's nativity play level of acting and an ending you'll foresee without the aid of crystal ball, con-artist medium or time machine. I'll give it credit, it has one single genuinely quite scary moment. After careful investigation I can confirm that no soiling had taken place but it was still pretty scary. Disclaimer: If I had pooped myself out of fright I'd not admit it anyway I have nothing against low budget movies, a large percentage of what I watch comes under that category I just have something against badly constructed poorly written monstrosities.

AN ISIS video showing the mass murder of everyone involved in this movie would be better than this. It has the worst acting the worst writing the worst directing. Even the sound is terrible and the music is terrible. Donna Spangler is the worst actress in the history of people. 30 year old college students trapped in a house where none of the doors and windows are locked but their cars won't start. But people can drive to them and they live on a busy street. Creepy cop shows up at random hours of the day. Every single cliché of every awful movie is piled on. Homeowner her house to a pack of aging young people and then continues to live in the house. They host a 10 minute party with no food music or booze even though the house has a massive bar free for the taking. There's even a haunted sauna. And so on. This movie is so bad you can't even make fun of it.

If you are hoping for a proper ghost movie, as I did given the "American Poltergeist" title, then you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you are looking for a pseudo-slasher movie with a woman in an old dress and lousy green make-up on her face, then this is exactly what you are looking for. Story-wise, then "American Poltergeist" (aka "The House of Lizzie Borden") was just about as generic and predictable as they come in the haunted horror genre. Only a few paranormal things happened in the house, which seemed okay and to slowly build up to something bigger, but then Lizzie Borden manifested in the shape of a woman in an old dress and with very questionable make-up. And then the movie just fell apart. And it got especially wonderful when a non-clergyman started to perform an exorcism. For a horror movie the only thing scary was the lack of anything even remotely spooky, scary or disturbing. Well, I wasn't fully honest there. There is one scary thing, and that was the acting of Donna Spangler. Apparently she thinks that moving, speaking and basically doing everything in such a slow pace, that is best described as a drug-induced stupor, is considered acting. It was so painful to witness. All she did was essentially just amplifying the stupidity of the movie. "American Poltergeist" was a disappointment of unfathomable proportions. And I should have seen it coming, as the reviewers either all really loved or hated the movie; there seemed to be no middle ground. I, if you haven't guessed it already, is of the latter option. If you enjoy a proper horror and/or haunting movie, then you shouldn't watch this particular movie.

Terrible. The acting is bland, forced and ridiculous. Example; More than once were the actors dramatically slapping and pulling on a door that obviously opened in the other direction. The dialogue was unconvincing and cringeworthy. There was no character development whatsoever. Plot holes. You can't leave the house, because your car won't start? Are you joking? If it were me, I'd take off running if I had to. Cheap, predictable jumpscares and horror movie clichés everywhere! Everything in this movie has been done before and better. Don't get me started on the terrible special effects. The only good thing about this film is that it ended. 1/10, only because I can't give a zero.

Here's the thing: most horror movies get poor ratings on IMDb, rotten tomatoes, pretty much everywhere, and usually the average/highly rated ones are also works of comedy (eg Housebound), or game-changing classics (Exorcist, Blair Witch) People are all different but most of the things that frighten us are really quite the same, so the result is that horror movies come off formulaic and predictable. Occasionally you get a real gem or a classic that manages to scare you in unexpected ways, but that's the exception rather than the rule. I can still enjoy something with too many jumpscares and an entirely predictable premise. So as a horror lover myself I tend to disregard ratings, because if I put too much stock in them, I just wouldn't watch very many horror movies to begin with. I'm sure most of you who like horror take those ratings with a grain of salt too. I'm here to tell you, don't do that with this movie. You think your standards are low enough to enjoy this? No they're not. The characters are 1-dimensional and can't act. The things they do don't make make any goddamned sense. There is no building of tension, no atmosphere, nothing. It's not even one of those so bad it's good movies, it's just straight awful. Avoid at all costs.

At first I thought I was still on Pornhub. From the very beginning, the acting, dialogues, sound and filming were all ridiculously amateurish and tacky. The wanna-be actors couldn't even walk naturally, less alone talk. The sound changes from scene to scene and you could even see the boom mic at one time. The makeup artists transformed what was to be a scary mannequin into a sad grotesque clown and Donna Spangler, who plays the villain, should be banned from ever appearing on camera (I doubt anyone who has seen 5 minutes if this movie would ever cast her anyway). This piece of wasted film roll deserves to be shown to arts students to let them know exactly what not to do.