31 Days of Pure Horror (Day Two--Haunter and The Orphanage)

[Mild Spoilers Ahead!]

Well, I didn’t get to the theater to see Motel Hell last night as a family birthday party ran long, so I had to find a replacement once I got home.  I’m trying to watch mostly films that I haven’t seen before with only a handful of classics thrown in for good measure, so I began scanning my Netflix queue.  I eventually settled on Haunter, the most recent film by horror auteur Vincenzo Natali (Ginger Snaps, Cube, Splice).  I’ve liked but not loved Natali’s films over the years, and I always feel like he is on the verge of making a great horror film.  Haunter isn’t that film, but it was very enjoyable.  It captures the adolescent angst of the protagonist as well as he did in Ginger Snaps, but the film is, in a lot of ways, more relatable despite the supernatural setting.  Abigail Breslin, as Lisa, is a teenage girl stuck inside her own home by a mysterious fog.  In the style of Groundhog Day, she is living the same day over and over.  It doesn’t take her long to discover that she is dead.  The core of the film is Lisa learning how she died and trying to prevent it from happening to others while not jeopardizing her afterlife which, while boring, allows her to spend eternity with her parents and her little brother who are also ghosts.  Despite how much information I’ve given here, I’ve really not come close to spoiling anything.  Most of the above is made clear in the first fifteen minutes of the movie and is just setting for the film core mystery. If it sounds interesting to you at all, it is worth checking out.  The movie is streaming on Netflix.

Tonight I plan on watching the Guillermo Del Toro-produced The Orphanage.  I bought the DVD when it came out in 2007, but for some reason I haven’t got around to watching the whole movie.  Since I’ve been pretty heavily invested in the haunted house sub-genre lately, I’m hoping to really enjoy this one.  I’ll share my thoughts on it tomorrow.  Until then, here is the theatrical trailer for the film.