Haunter – Review

We’ve got a soft spot in our hearts for horror movies that manage to overturn the tired conventions which haunt the genre. At the very least, Haunter a ghost story told from the viewpoint of the spooks has that going for it. Now, if only the vast majority of it weren’t so damnably dull.

If you thought your teenage years were endless, you`d probably be able to empathise with Lisa (Little Miss Sunshine`s Abigail Breslin). She`s a teenage ghost who`s been doomed to re-live the eve of her sixteenth birthday for the last three decades (with the rest of her family, no less!).

This adolescent purgatory is thanks to Edgar Mullen, the resident serial killer, who collects the souls of his victims and locks them away like spectral butterflies in the psychic equivalent of mayonnaise jars. Lisa must prevent the new family of her haunted house from experiencing the same fate.

Haunter is, quite disappointingly, a patchy number. It`s got bad internal logic but a good premise, engaging cinematography but only semi-decent scares, and a compelling cast that don`t ever seem to have anything worthwhile to say. It`s a waste, considering the genuine spookiness of Stephen McHattie in his role as the sedate psychopath.

Of these elements, it`s the ill-focused script that detracts the most from what could have been a pretty stellar haunted house yarn. The way the worlds of the living and the dead intersect is undeniably compelling, and director Vincenzo Natali traverses the two worlds ably enough. But thanks to the script, one ironically gets the same frustrating feeling of being stuck that must have plagued the film`s protagonist.

Haunter is a horror flick that manages to establish a moody atmosphere, an intriguing perspective and an eye for cinematographic detail, but never quite captures the visceral scares that are mandatory for its genre.

Summary:  A haunted house with a disheartening lack of horror.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Raphael Lim