Bloodtype Online

    A young man named Martin moves into a room in slightly run down boarding house and soon discovers that he has gotten into more than he bargained for.  He only ever sees one other tenant and she isn’t all that pleasant.  The very first night in his new place Martin wakes up to a terrible racket as it seems something is trying to break into his room.  But the next morning the landlord points out that there isn’t a mark on his door.  Soon he starts to have strange dreams and it appears that ghostly figures are trying to communicate with him thru the television.  Martin is confused and afraid that he is losing his mind because of a recent break up with his girlfriend Veronica, which is why he came looking for a new place.  He goes to Veronica with his fears and she ends up staying with him in the house.  That very night Martin wakes to find that Veronica has gone missing and now he is even more isolated.  Is Martin losing his mind or is something more sinister happening at # 24?         

    To be honest this movie didn’t really make an impression on me.  The story is interesting, but very slow.  I found myself watching the clock on several occasions while watching this movie and that is never a good thing.  The story also tries to throw a couple of twists at the audience, while at the same time building up some atmosphere.  The attempted plot twists are pretty transparent and won’t fool a savvy horror audience.  The film does succeed in building some tension and atmosphere, so I will give it credit there.  The cast is very small and they all do a very good job.  The actor, who plays Martin, Robert Blythe, is especially good.  Honestly without a good cast this movie would of fallen flat and been really terrible.   

    There really aren’t any special effects in this movie.  Most of the ghostly sightings are seen in a television.  The rest of the “sightings” are all handled with lighting and camera angles.  Honestly this not only feels appropriate for the movie, but also actually works very well. I think that this approach goes much further in setting the atmosphere than any special effects could of.  Other than some blood running under a door there isn’t anything here for the gore hounds.   I also wanted to mention that while this movie was clearly shot on a lower budget the camera work and lighting is excellent.  There are times where the movie feels very claustrophobic and creepy, which is accomplished solely thru the camera work and lighting.      

    The Haunting of # 24 is a very competent and professional movie.  While at times it succeeds in creating tension the plot is far too slow.  Also it doesn’t break any new ground and is pretty much like every other ghost story that I’ve seen.  So bottom line here is that we have a beautifully shot, technically sound movie that is saddled with a mediocre script.   

Rating - **1/2

-John "El Juan" Shatzer