The House on Mansfield Street

source: The House on Mansfield Street

Moviecut—The House on Mansfield Street

source: The House on Mansfield Street

I knew from the start it wouldn't be a masterpiece. This movie looked like another copy of Paranormal Activity and that's exactly what it was, which I have to admit, is one of my guilty pleasures. Contrary to all the bad reviews, I think it's actually not that bad. Acting is decent, so is directing. The only problem is the story, it starts well and there are a few good ideas along the way, but it lacks refinement and the ending is disappointing. The author should have spent more time on the script. That being said, making that movie with only a few hundred pounds and basically no one is pretty impressive. It may look easy but it's not.

I promised I would have a look at this tonight, so here I am. I binged the previous three films in the same universe yesterday, and wanted to see what the standalone was like. If you watched the previous 3, specifically the second one, you will see a familiar face. The minute you see this person, you will suspect what is going on if you assume the timeline is linear to the films. I did find the pacing a little drawn out, and the story was perhaps lacking substance for the full timeline of a feature film. I did appreciate the 3am references, but noted that things clearly happened in daylight hours as well. I would have liked to see a little more of the mythology they touched on in the third installment, perhaps next time. I will still be watching what comes of these, I think this world has promise. See you next time.

Reportedly made on a budget of a few hundred GBP which would mean only a fool would expect anything approaching big studio quality. Richard Mansfield has gathered a cult following through his excellent adaptations of the ghost stories of MR James' (and others) so my expectations were slightly raised. What I found was a well made, well-paced found footage film , which while suffering from some of the tropes which so plague the genre (shaky camera, electrical interference etc), still came out as a pleasing effort overall. The story was solid enough, the production polished, the acting reasonably good, and well blended together. Mansfield has produced a film which without breaking any boundaries, entertains and keeps the viewer guessing, without totally flummoxing them, until the rather sudden ending. I felt another ten-twenty minutes to pad out the story , or back story if there was one, could have pushed the film further. All-in-all this production has made me look forward to more of his content in the future.

source: The House on Mansfield Street

Well....that's an hour or so I won't get back! I know I know.....the reviews should have been a warning, but I like to give films like this the benefit of the doubt. I really wish I hadn't on this occasion. I was drawn to this film purely because I live not too far from Mansfield and it was refreshing to see a British take on this genre, which is usually dominated by American-made movies. So the film is called 'Mansfield Street', set in Mansfield, and filmed by a guy called 'Richard Mansfield'. Coincidence? Or total BS? I should have picked up on this dodgy detail right at the beginning. The 'acting' is absolutely atrocious and in no way did I care, feel sympathy for, or route for the main character; in all honesty, I just wanted him to die spectacularly and for the film to end asap (the ending made the whole thing worth it, even if it wasn't spectacular!). I didnt care about his move from London, his wandering around Nottingham or his dodgy neighbour. The concept was promising but the film just couldn't execute that promise. In the age of constant CCTV, video doorbells and mobile phone footage it was definitely relevant to current society. Unfortunately, the film doesn't add anything to the found-footage genre at all and is pale in comparison with other, similar films. As soon as you are introduced to the support character, you instantly know what part she plays and why; as soon as she handed over the 'gift' you can easily figure out the gift is the cause of all his problems. Also, when you see the ghost for the first time you can tell straight away that it isn't a ghost at all; why the hell would a ghost need a masquerade mask?!? Maybe it has crippling self-esteem issues....who knows! I'm not sure whether to view this film in a serious light, or if it is meant to be tongue in cheek. Either way, it doesn't work. In a nutshell, the film is sluggish, boring, very amateurish, poorly filmed and acted and is a tired version of the found-footage genre. If I were new to this genre, this film would make me steer clear of similar films which is really sad.

First the good: The atmosphere was quite good for the type of movie that it was, and Nick was appropriately frightened without being over the top about it.. I initially liked Nick as a character - he's the type of guy you'd have a couple of beers with, and then spend the rest of the evening playing Call Of Duty, The movie naturally, will earn comparisons to Paranormal Activity, which itself owes a lot to The Blair Witch Project, so that's not a big deal. I like that they, for the most part, decided to forego the shakycam, and instead madd the choice to show some of the scares. The budget was nil, so good on them for knowing how to stretch it. The not so good: The last 5 minutes of this movie were just silly, and I significantly lowered my rating because of it. . Nick keeps insisting on catching the train to London, and yet still decides to sleep an extra two nights in this house, in the dark, clearly aware that things are quite wrong. It really does feel like they ran out of ideas, and decided to pad it a little. In a way, it sort of assassinated Nick as a character because his choices during the last bit were just so dumb, one has to wonder how he made it as long as he did. It made it difficult to sympathize with him the longer the movie went on. As far as Emma goes, she's pretty underdeveloped, and rather vanilla. I'm assuming she's supposed to be a demon, but it's the first time I've ever seen one in a movie that relies on a butcher's knife to do in the protagonist. You're an utter moron, Nick.

This movie is a finished work. Just consider do you have a finished work in your whole life when you decide to criticize this movie. It's made just for 500 pounds. Maybe they made just only for fun in a cold afternoon because they got bored. I loved the movie because it made me realize that we are so much under pressure of high budget over whelmed, whipping and over dramatised movies. Sometimes you want to feel simple. You just want to follow a story without being haunted by greedy producers. If you don't like this picture, make your own movie and have something in your life to be proud of. I'm giving 10 stars because of the reason.