Sixteen years after her mother died in a fire, Ellie (Erin Marie Hogan) moves into a home with her husband and niece. While it appears that they are a happy family unit, Ellie has other plans as the house has the rep of being a haunted house and she is hoping to use it (and her gifted niece) as a conduit to contact her mother to find out what really happened that night. This is a decent little horror movie from debuting writer-director Kyle Mecca, who gets good performances and delivers some moody scenes in this Buffalo, New York lensed flick. I wouldn't say it is 100% successful as there are some narrative stumbles, but it plays it totally serious and I appreciated that. I actually feel sorry for flicks like this. First, it doesn't stand a chance in today's market flooded with thousands of streaming horror flicks, all with similar looking artwork (graphic designers for streaming horror films be feasting!). How can you catch anyone's attention? Second, if you do manage to capture someone, most likely they will not enjoy it because they are seeking bombastic James Wan-esque The Conjuring vibes that have faux exorcists turned into Avengers superheroes. This results in schizo review pages where some applauded the slow pace and care with characters, while others shout "booooooooooring!" Anyway, like I said it was decent.
