Movie Review - The Haunting Of Briar House

The Haunting Of Briar House

AKA:  The Unspoken

2015

The Cast

There's something wrong with the house in the woods down on Briar Lane.  Years after a family disappears from the house in the '70's the boards are being pried off the windows and the doors are being unlocked as a new tenant is moving in.  A young mother, Jeanie (Hutton), and her mute son have escaped the city and their traumas there.  After his father passed away Adrian stopped speaking and hopefully, the change of pace and scenery will help him out of this fugue.  With them comes a nurse and housekeeper, Portia (Rukiya Bernard), and from the town, they hire Angela (Ferland), a part-time confidant for Adrian.  However, no sooner than they've opened the doors to the house that strange things begin to happen.

I really do like this new and refreshingly well thought out take on the Haunted House subgenre of horror.  The story is well structured and full of interesting characters.  However, it would have been nice to have a few more scenes between Father and Daughter in respect to Angela's character as this would not only have strengthened and filled her out more but would have added a better depth to the story.  It also would have added more power to climax when Angela's dad (Munro) comes to save her.

The director does a wonderful job of creating the scene of a town/village which has seen better days.  This is great as it adds to the believability and reality of the story.  People have problems and they are doing their best to survive... everything isn't rosy.  I also have to give credit for the opening sequence which throws the audience straight into the action and sets the scene, pace, and atmosphere for the rest of the movie.

With all the horror films out and about that stomp over well-worn scenarios, it's refreshing to have a twist. It's also nice to have a decent director filming - all too often the direction itself is one of the major things to harm a film (contrary to belief not everyone can make a good horror film).

As for the acting, it's well above par and the portrayals only add to the power of the film.  One of the best is Adrian (Suljic), though he doesn't say a word, he definitely has a presence throughout the whole film.

I would recommend this to all lovers of the horror genre and to those wishing to try something out of the field.  It's not the best but it's a great deal better than most in the genre and well worth a viewing... or two...

I give this fear flick a head-scratching and nerve-jangling 7.25 out of 10.

The Trailer