House of Bones

Intent on providing a new feature, a paranormal research show decides to use a reportedly haunted house for their next shoot only to discover the house is genuinely haunted and try to uncover its dark secrets to get out alive. This is one of the more impressive and enjoyable entries in the style with a lot of rather enjoyable aspects to it. One of the main reasons for that is the fact that this one manages to include so many different clichés about the style while doing them in a manner that's enjoyable without really beating over the head how cliché they are. The opening starts to the house walk-through is a major example, as the malfunctioning tools, exaggerated readings and faulty opportunities to utilize the skills they've honed throughout their stint on the show are all quite logical and necessary for such a movie yet they come off as enjoyable here on their own while also subconsciously building to another factor down the road. Likewise, the incidents that occur once they're actually going through the house here are some of the most enjoyable parts of the movie with some actually chilling moments on display as the crumbling walls, haunting voices and other interferences with their equipment start building up a rather intriguing idea here that tends to match the earlier segments quite well, selling the idea that the house is truly haunted and they're in far over their heads here by staying firm to their belief that it's all a gag. Once that turns into the actually freaky events, from the shower disappearance to the battle up in the attic with the zombie-like slave ghost and the ending battle in the sewer system underneath the house this really tends to come alive with lots of action and some rather chilling moments here to make for some interesting and even chilling moments that really provide this with some gruesome, gory deaths as a result. There's one rather off factor about the film here because it does tend to throw around the back-story of the house and it's history far too late into the film so that it does tend to peter out and almost grind to a halt here by stopping for the lengthy and overlong explanation that stops the momentum the film had built up with all the hauntings and spiritual dealings beforehand that make for quite an impressive showing before this kills that slightly. It's not enough to really harm the film, but it is something to contend with in here. Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

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.

The cast and crew of a reality ghost-hunting TV show rock up at a haunted plantation house expecting the usual non-event; to their horror, this particular location turns out to be the real deal, a possessed building that feeds on the blood of its victims. Y'know, for a SyFy movie starring Corin Nemec and a past her prime Charisma Carpenter, I didn't think that House of Bones was all that bad. Sure, the final act is a bit of a chaotic mess, with inexplicable stuff happening left, right and centre, but I was never bored, director Jeffery Scott Lando successfully creating a spooky atmosphere throughout despite the silliness and throwing in a reasonable amount of fun gore amidst all of the supernatural shenanigans. For fans of the red stuff there is a dumb cop impaled by a malevolent iron railing, a woman getting a Glasgow smile courtesy of a large shard of glass, mutilated slaves on meat-hooks and one of the ghost-hunters having his eye drilled out by a robotic camera (don't ask!). 5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

To be as fair as possible, this is not even close to the worst horror movie I have ever seen. But it is done with such a complete and total lack of any sort of spirit or élan that it just doesn't deserve anything other than the lowest possible score. the acting is bad, but not so laughably bad that it becomes fun to mock and deride. some of the actors are clearly doing their best and you can't be mad or derisive at them for it. they're at least putting in effort where it seems absolutely no one else is. and indeed, "no effort" would probably be a better theme for this film and title for this review. this film looks and feels like it was written, produced, and directed by someone who has seen exactly 4 movies in their entire life, and 3 of them were about haunted houses. The ghost hunting stuff is tepidly skimmed upon; we're just supposed to expect and take for granted that they have all this supposed ghost hunting equipment and that it means "spooky ghosts" whenever it makes noise. there's no attempt to even condescend to the audience in explaining one or two of the devices. the music is nonstop all throughout of some of the most generic, nondescript horror movie background music likely taken from an archive and put together out of some misguided belief that every single scene needs overbearing and blatantly obvious music cues as though this were a silent movie musical. it gets to a point where it's so obnoxiously overdone as to come across as amateurish as a children's horror show episode too cheap to be Goosebumps. further driving home the "knock-off children's horror show" mood is the actor playing Quentin, the host of the ghost hunting show who doesn't actually interact with the cast much and acts like what a child might imagine an A-list celebrity talks and acts like. They are a one-dimensional character straight out of Power Rangers, but with no comic relief to justify their existence here. virtually everything else about the film is so boring, generic, and formulaic as to not even warrant attention paid to it. the CG effects are bad and put center-stage so we can clearly see and admire how terrible they are, rather than used sparingly and quickly to enhance a scene. the camera work is flatly "there", as though they set up a camera, turned it on, and that's it. the lighting is as wide open and brightly lit as a sitcom, completely detracting from the mood of a horror movie, and the dialogue is too terrible to be of note, and yet somehow not bad enough to be laughable.

I often watch horror movies when I want ... well, er, entertainment. Even though that (entertainment for entertainment's sake) is a fairly low bar for many, for me I will positively NOT be entertained if the execution of the movie (story, acting, effects, etc) is poor -- instead, I will be annoyed. In this case I was highly annoyed. Exhausted from a couple of days of driving, I lay back to scrape the sides of the online barrels (Netflix, Google Play) to see if anything decent was left. I found House of Bones, and -- gaack! -- purchased it before sidling on over to IMDb to check out reviews. Bad idea. Even though it was only a couple of dollars, I felt ripped off. It is difficult to know whether to chiefly blame the acting or the writing or the direction or the concept. All are poor -- but it takes an extraordinary actor to light up material that is so poorly written as to make no sense, and that is what we have here. I'll just point out one small example of why -- or rather how -- this movie is a steaming pile of thrown-together crap, and then I'm going to quit, because House of Bones has already wasted enough of my time. This should serve as an example of the manner of slapdashery you'll find here. The 'haunted house' crew has, it's made fairly clear, NEVER (before visiting the "Wicker House", that is) seen anything scarier than a woman who tried to pick up one of the crew members in a bar, ha ha ha hee ha my sides are splitting. That is, they've NEVER seen anything "supernatural". And YET ... not only do they all seem to know what "ectoplasm" is, THEY'VE ENCOUNTERED IT BEFORE (the previous encounter was with something green -- the ectoplasm here is yellow, and "smells old"). Hunh? Which is the case? Neither is the case, because this movie wasn't developed, it was stitched together, and the pieces fit badly. There is no focused plot, there are no coherent characters (there can't be in a Mulligan Stew like this) and the majority of the effects are really terrible. Things just happen, and then they stop happening. Congratulations! You'll never get that hour and a half back.

this ''film'' (i dare to call it) is so bad when ever a friend brings it up i almost puke the storyline s (aswell as a disappointment) a total mess of various already used scenes. i rate this move a -14 sorry if you were offended in anyway but i would literally rather be stabbed than watch this. AND I ENJOY LOW BUDGET FILMS !!!!!!!!!!!!!! i was surprised to find this movie was directed by the maker of goblin (yet another TV film fest) and many other bad movies made for TV, if your looking for a good time and a film that states its characters enough so you remember them i highly recommend an entirely different film any even if you have to watch a film from the 1920s. you will highly disappointed if you watch this so just take my advice and watch another horror masterpiece unlike this disappointment.

This is a 2010 made for US TV with noticeable commercial pauses. A group of TV ghost hunters, who have their own bag of tricks of "smoke and mirrors" opt to do a show at the Wicker House which turns out to be seriously haunted. Charisma Carpenter plays a psychic providing some minor eye-candy. The house had a fair creep factor to it and the production itself was a slightly better than average US TV offering. Worth a watch, but not a keeper.

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

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.

I would simply suggest watching this movie for what it is, a simple low budget horror movie. Everything in this is just correct... not bad or not that good. The story is pretty much classic , a haunted house, but they had a few thing to make it goes out of the ordinary. Special Effects are neither awesome but not bad at all, they are lets say believable. Actors where average at best but you are not watching an horror movie for its acting right? Charisma Carpenter should had less clothes on but well... lol. Seriously i enjoyed this little movie on a late night, it won't remain burned in my head for long, but it was entertaining on the moment.