Groan. Here's another yawner with so many loud bangs and "this is the time to freak out or jump" cues (the soundtrack is quite noisy and never- ending), it doesn't have time to breathe. Slaves were supposedly rescued by a stationmaster considered a hero in Southern history, but the film points out how this wasn't the case. A taxidermist by trade, it was told down through generations he helped provide refuge and escape for slaves, only with help by a ghost named Mr. Gordy (talking to a child, the daughter of lead Abigail Spencer) do we learn the real truth. An ancestor of Mr. Gordy, the stationmaster did some horrible misdeeds with his taxidermy skills. With Chad Michael Murray (of One Tree Hill) as Spencer's husband (he's all complacent and okay with his daughter's talking to Mr. Gordy, for whom she's the only one who sees him) and the sexy-as-hell Katee Sackoff as Spencer's sister (escaping bad relationships with men and sober from the drink) in the cast, all eventually dealing with the ghosts of the slaves of Pine Mountain and the evil spirit of the stationmaster, with frequent visits to a well where a special hidden room reveals some unpleasant examples of taxidermy in secret.
Cicely Tyson is made up to almost resemble a corpse, her eyes discolored and for whatever reason she has horse teeth in her mouth. I was clueless as to why she's made up this way. Her character had relatives that vanished and were never seen again; later, the film shows us where they've been "kept" for quite some time. This is one of those unnecessary characters that knows a child knows. It is like that scene in The Shining when Scatman Crothers addresses "the shine" with Danny Lloyd in the kitchen; Tyson seems to know that the little girl has the ability to see what many others can't. It is basically what Sackoff told the child earlier, but Spencer tries to fend off their embracing of this gift.
The film commits fully to "ghost fades" and constant appearances of apparitions popping up practically in every damn scene! Sackoff deserves better than to be lying on the floor with thread strings protruding from her mouth, needled to the roof of an abandoned trailer. Surprising to see a talent like Spencer in something abysmal as this "depiction of a true story". She sees her dead mother and has a "gift" where dead people are visible to her (as they are for the kid and Sackoff) all the time, as pills seem to help very little. Chad just kind of goes with the flow, not all that concerned that the women in his life see dead people. It is all nonchalant and meh to him, although he does rise to the occasion when his daughter's life is in jeopardy. There is a Baptist version of an exorcism (obviously there's *got* to be an exorcism, right?) that does little to help stop the ghosts from hanging around. You do get to see the child finally receive help riding her bike as Mr. Gordy gives her a push. Yeah. And what's up with that title? Sheesh. Why tie yourself to an even worse ghost film? The direction is too busy with all the ghostly visits and warnings of the boogeyman to tell a story in a way that feels like editing ADHD style.
You get near drowning in a bathtub, puked out maggots and roaches, rotted corpses, sack-head racists performing taxidermy on a taxidermist, slave corpses in a well, slave ghosts leading a way to their current resting place, a ghoul whose hideous face is stitched to a potato sack, and numerous spectres unafraid to hide themselves. This is a lot of effects, both in what you see and hear, but it is all tiresome instead of scary.
Cicely Tyson is made up to almost resemble a corpse, her eyes discolored and for whatever reason she has horse teeth in her mouth. I was clueless as to why she's made up this way. Her character had relatives that vanished and were never seen again; later, the film shows us where they've been "kept" for quite some time. This is one of those unnecessary characters that knows a child knows. It is like that scene in The Shining when Scatman Crothers addresses "the shine" with Danny Lloyd in the kitchen; Tyson seems to know that the little girl has the ability to see what many others can't. It is basically what Sackoff told the child earlier, but Spencer tries to fend off their embracing of this gift.
The film commits fully to "ghost fades" and constant appearances of apparitions popping up practically in every damn scene! Sackoff deserves better than to be lying on the floor with thread strings protruding from her mouth, needled to the roof of an abandoned trailer. Surprising to see a talent like Spencer in something abysmal as this "depiction of a true story". She sees her dead mother and has a "gift" where dead people are visible to her (as they are for the kid and Sackoff) all the time, as pills seem to help very little. Chad just kind of goes with the flow, not all that concerned that the women in his life see dead people. It is all nonchalant and meh to him, although he does rise to the occasion when his daughter's life is in jeopardy. There is a Baptist version of an exorcism (obviously there's *got* to be an exorcism, right?) that does little to help stop the ghosts from hanging around. You do get to see the child finally receive help riding her bike as Mr. Gordy gives her a push. Yeah. And what's up with that title? Sheesh. Why tie yourself to an even worse ghost film? The direction is too busy with all the ghostly visits and warnings of the boogeyman to tell a story in a way that feels like editing ADHD style.
You get near drowning in a bathtub, puked out maggots and roaches, rotted corpses, sack-head racists performing taxidermy on a taxidermist, slave corpses in a well, slave ghosts leading a way to their current resting place, a ghoul whose hideous face is stitched to a potato sack, and numerous spectres unafraid to hide themselves. This is a lot of effects, both in what you see and hear, but it is all tiresome instead of scary.