Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2010

©2009 GOLD CIRCLE FILMS LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

How can the filmmakers of a spook story this flaccid claim that it’s “based on a true story”? How about “based on something that some extremely gullible people at one time may or may not have believed to be true”? It’s another retread of the old Amityville chestnut, in which a (real) family in the ’70s lived in a house that turned out to be a former funeral home, and some guy wrote a book about it. This one adds a dying son (so as to more easily see dead people) and a grim priest. There’s little atmosphere, and so many “boo!” moments (it was only a cat) that they become monotonous.