Firstly, I dislike the original immensley. I found it to be incredibly boring, and more funny than frightening. Opinion probably wouldn't change even if I saw it again.
That said, I saw the remake this afternoon, and throughly enjoyed it. To its credit, Ryan Reynolds was fantastic, and totally redeemed himself for the atrocity that is "Blade: Trinity". He pretty much set the mood for the whole movie. I could appreciate the old school, haunted house approach, and thought it was a faithful, solid re-telling.
On the downside, and it's really just typical nowadays, the stupid jump scares and crazy visuals, i.e
Spoiler:However, I appreciated the visuals that accompanied the babysitters storytelling segment. "Bang! Bang! Bang!". The narrative opening, and her segment, were really well done.
arms reaching out of the ceiling, holding people, kids appearing then disappearing.
It was a very basic movie and story, overall, and probably would have been even better without the jumpy scenes and score. Reynolds coulda carried the whole thing. The characters were really well developed, which is a rarity in Horror.
I think Reynolds did carry the whole thing, everything else was either generic or stupid. I didn't like how they had one boss ghost ("ketchim", come on, that's just silly).
There was like one good scene in this movie that didn't involve Reynolds (the scene when the kid went to the bathroom in the middle of the night). And the babysitter part was neat, mostly because she was overly hot.
I couldn't disagree with you more about the characters being well developed, I thought they were hardly even one dimensional, they were walking stick figures made out of the cliche. I didn't care about any of them whatsoever, other then Reynolds character. We had the rebellious pre teen, the sweet, innocent and eerie little girl who can see ghosts, and the naive little boy who's just sorta there without any general purpose to the story. Then there's the typical wife being the voice of reason thing. none of the characters went past their basic cliche.
Also, the last scene in the movie is possibly the worst scene I've ever witnessed, it almost ruined the entire movie. It was like a prank someone pulled in the editing room and forget to edit it out afterwards.
Too many wierd "pop" noises to make the audience jump and to much rumbling and twitchings of the camera to relate tension to the audience, not enough actual substance.
Well, keeping in mind this is purely fictional, there are only so many things you can do when your house is haunted, or has the power of posession. A) Stay and die or B) Leave and live. I'll take B, lol. How did you feel about the ending of "Poltergeist" or "The Shining"? I wouldn't have wanted to see
Spoiler:personally, although it was strongly suggested it would happen at the end, with
Ryan Reynold's character die,
Spoiler:
him being bound up in rope, loaded in a boat. I figured he was going to be sleepin' with the fishes.
Jump scares are just new-era Horror movie staples. It's just there, like static, disposable characters, which I didn't find in this movie. When I say that the characters were developed, they weren't atypical stupid, ballsy brawny jocks and big boobed airheads. There was a credible, cohesive family bond that I appreciated. Everyone was an intregal part of the story, and there weren't any filler roles. The family, the priest who buried the old family, the babysitter who sat for them, etc. They all had a role, and a story to tell, and it helped push things along.
I liked it. I didn't say it was a fantastic movie, but it was still put together, acted, and produced better than most Horror I've seen lately.
i agree that the babysitter was pretty hot...(as is ryan...but a lil too muscular for my taste)
i like the movie. it wasn't scary in any right but it was good movie that was great to pass a couple hours at the theatre.
the jump "scares" i.e. the loud noises to try and make people jump were annoying after a while.
i liked the scene when the boy went to the bathroom at night.
and the baby sitter's scene in the closet was also well done.
i also enjoyed the bits of jokes and such like the baby sitter's habit and ryan's jokes.
the acting was well done and i liked the story. i'd say a 8/10
jus don't expect gore or any scares. jus take it as a great thriller