Ghosts & Haunts Movies

Inspired by Los Angeles Times writer Leslie Gornstein's article "A Jinx in a Box," this horror film from Ghost House Pictures and director Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch) tells the tale of a broken family that comes under attack from a malevolent supernatural entity of Jewish folklore. Shortly after her parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick) divorce, a young girl purchases an ornate antique box at a yard sale. In the weeks that follow, the young girl forms an intense fixation on the box, her behavior growing increasingly bizarre as she falls into the grip of a diabolical apparition. When the girl's father discovers that the relic is in fact a holding cell for the disconnected soul of a deceased person who has been denied entry into the afterlife and needs a human host to inhabit, he fights to rid her of the evil that threatens to consume her body and soul. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (Open Water) return to terra firma for this remake of the "real time" Uruguayan thriller La Casa Muda. Their summer cottage vandalized by squatters during the off-season, Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), her father, and her uncle begin the laborious process of cleaning the place up when noises from within hint they are not alone. Now the deeper Sarah ventures into the derelict building, the further the secrets of her dark past are dragged out into the light. As with La Casa Muda, Silent House was shot in one continuous take, a production style that allows the viewer to experience the swelling tension of Sarah's horror firsthand as she unlocks a diabolical mystery. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Despite the misleading American release title -- giving the impression of another holiday-themed slasher flick -- this British production (aka Timewarp Terror) is set in midsummer and employs a wacky but interesting supernatural theme. The story serves up the usual batch of teenage morons and bimbos as horror-fodder, stranding the group in a haunted hotel which, years ago, was the site of a massacre so horrific that the entire locale has been trapped in a deadly time warp. The resident ghosts torment their new guests with a variety of silly special effects -- including a possessed vacuum cleaner, an inter-dimensional mirror, and a lethal movie screen -- and turn them into murderous ghouls who then pursue the still-warm survivors. Directed by Norman J. Warren (the sceptered Isle's answer to Fred Olen Ray), this film is derivative of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead and Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, minus those films' extreme approach to horror. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Frank Willard's barn-storming stage melodrama Cat and the Canary was filmed four times over a fifty-year period. This silent 1927 version stars Laura LaPlante as one of several potential heirs to a huge fortune. Brought to a foreboding mansion on the 20th anniversary of their eccentric benefactor's death, the heirs must sit in silence as the lawyer (Tully Marshall) recites the terms of the will. The legacy hinges upon three sealed letters, each to be opened at a strategic point in the evening. Also crucial to the inheritance is the insistence that all the heirs spend the night in the creepy old mansion. Nervous Creighton Hale appoints himself LaPlante's protector--a far from simple job, given the many hidden panels and revolving doors which festoon the house. When the lawyer is murdered, LaPlante is the principle suspect. Cat and the Canary was remade as The Cat Creeps in 1930, and under its own title in 1939 (with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard) and 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is one of the better Warner Brother's anthologies and features some of Daffy and Friends' greatest adventures that are linked by a horror theme that has Daffy trying to set up his own ghost exorcism service with Porky and Bugs. Among the older cartoon shorts presented is a new short, The Duxorcist. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Paramount followed up its successful Bob Hope/Paulette Goddard co-starrer The Cat and the Canary (1939) by warming up another venerable "old dark house" stage play, Paul Dickey and Charles Goddard's The Ghost Breaker, pluralizing the title to accommodate both stars. This time Hope plays radio personality Lawrence L. Lawrence (the middle initial stands for Lawrence: "My folks had no imagination") who has to flee New York to avoid being mistakenly arrested for murder. He and his manservant Alex (Willie Best) book passage on a Cuba-bound liner, where they meet lovely heiress Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard). She is heading to Cuba to take charge of her ancestral mansion, despite warnings from several sinister characters that to enter this "haunted" house will mean certain death. Appointing himself Mary's protector, Lawrence investigates the mansion on his own, thereby crossing the path of a zombie (Noble Johnson) and an apparently genuine ghost. He also meets the twin brother of the man he's accused of killing (Anthony Quinn), who seems the most likely suspect when Mary nearly comes to harm. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This sequel to New World Pictures' surprise horror hit bears little connection with its predecessor apart from the participation of writer Ethan Wiley, who also assumed directorial duties. This time around, the title abode is an old mansion inherited by the great-great-grandson of its original owner, a legendary frontier outlaw. The new owner, Jesse (Arye Gross), whose parents were murdered in the mansion 20 years ago, unwisely searches the premises for a cache of gems believed to be hidden there. With the aid of girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln) and buddy Charlie (Jonathan Stark), Jesse stumbles upon the original owner himself (Royal Dano), who is remarkably still alive (albeit in particularly decrepit condition) and cantankerous as all get-out. Great-great-grandpa has been preserved by the supernatural powers of an Aztec crystal skull, which is also capable of reanimating the dead and opening portals into other dimensions. Its true powers are tested readily when the skull falls into the wrong hands, leading our heroes on a wacky supernatural chase. The horror comedy formula that kept the original film's shaky premise afloat is far less functional here, filling the story with silly contrivances that include a collection of pet monsters and a time-travel romantic subplot. Still, the film has some clever moments, mainly from Dano, who makes the most of his difficult character by adding a cartoonish flair, and from Cheers alum John Ratzenberger's amusing cameo turn as a plumber strangely accustomed to cross-dimensional travel. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

It's a wildly varied group that takes shelter from a raging English storm in the forbidding mansion of the Femm family. Among the reluctant guests are stuffed-shirt Philip Waverton (Raymond Massey): Philip's sensitive wife Margaret (Gloria Stuart); their mutual friend, disillusioned war veteran Roger Penderell (Melvyn Douglas); vulgar self-made millionaire Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton); and Porterhouse's no-better-than-she-ought-to-be lady friend Gladys DuCane (Lillian Bond). Under the baleful eyes of ungracious, atheistic host Horace Femm (Ernst Thesiger) and Horace's religious-zealot sister Rebecca (Eva Moore), the group sits around conversing, slowly coming to the realization that first impressions are most deceiving. Normally, that would be the whole story-except that the old dark house houses a deep dark secret involving 101-year-old Sir Roderick Femm (played by "John Dudgeon", actually an actress named Elspeth Dudgeon) and pyromaniac Saul Femm (Brember Wills). Lumbering ominously throughout the proceedings is top-billed Boris Karloff, playing Morgan, the mute, alcoholic family butler (the opening credits felt obligated to tell 1932 filmgoers that yes, this was the same Karloff who'd portrayed the Monster in the previous season's Frankenstein). Directed with sinister verve by James Whale and brimming with unforgettable dialogue, The Old Dark House is one of the most enjoyable and least formularized of the Universal "scare" pictures of the early 1930s. The film was based on J. B. Priestly's Benighted, though Priestly's hero dies in the book and does not in the film (this appears to have been a last-minute decision--and a wise one). Long thought lost, The Old Dark House was rediscovered in the early 1970s; copyright problems with the lukewarm 1963 remake kept it off television until 1994, at which time a sparkling new print was struck, replacing the washed-out dupes with which film buffs were all too familiar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The "psycho"-logical melodrama My World Dies Screaming was appropriately released on a double bill with Lost, Lonely and Vicious, which also featured a profoundly disturbed protagonist. In My World, Gerald Mohr plays Philip Tierney, who hopes to expunge the inner demons plaguing his wife Sheila (Cathy O'Donnell). He persuades her to return to the crumbling old mansion where, as a child, she witnessed a brutal axe murder. Incredibly, the killers do not return to finish the job; instead, the audience is treated to all manner of pseudo-Freudian symbolism as Sheila subconsciously battles her way towards normalcy. My World Dies Screaming isn't bad: it's just that the films substitutes style for substance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This satirical murder mystery pits a woman who is the epitome of glamour (played by Haruko Wanibuchi) against a clever murderer during a holiday stay at a strange ghostly mansion. Seven young women, who have chosen as nicknames the brand names of much-advertised consumer products, begin to disappear in a decidedly suspicious manner. Are they fashion victims? How else can one explain the eerie coordination between their pastel outfits and the pastels of the rooms in which they appear? It is up to the heroine -- whose every screen appearance is heralded by special lighting, gentle breezes, and a soft camera focus -- to find out what is going on. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

William A. Graham directs the medical thriller Acceptable Risk, a made-for-cable adaptation of a story from Coma writer Robin Cook. A scientist (Chad Lowe) discovers a mold in the spooky old house he lives in with his wife (Kelly Rutherford). In order to test his theory that the discovery could help fight many different brain disorders, the scientist injects himself with the mold. The man undergoes some strange changes, which may or may not have something to do with the house's previous owner, a woman who was hung under suspicion of being a witch. Sean Patrick Flanery, Patty McCormack, and Danielle von Zerneck round out the cast of this film that premiered October 21, 2001, on WTBS. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The horror film Nine Lives takes place in a Scottish estate that, due to severe weather, has been cut off from being able to communicate with the rest of the world. Nine friends are staying at the estate and come across a history book that explains the gruesome way in which one of the mansion's former owners died. After their discovery, people begin dying mysteriously. The cast includes hotel heiress Paris Hilton. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi