My goal for the month of September was to hit at least ten posts, all being reviews. With this post, I will hit that goal. I thought I might get to eleven, but I think I will wait until next month to top ten posts. I hope to anyway. I had some late nights which caused me to have some trouble writing at times. This lead to waiting longer than I meant to start a new movie review. Ah well, at least I met my goal. I should have a book review coming up soon. I'm almost done with the book I have been reading and should finish it early next week. Before that though, it is time for a Netflix instant watch. I went through my list and found The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest (2013), which has been renamed to American Poltergeist 2 on Netflix. Even the title I will list it under isn't the original title, which was You Will Love Me.
Paige (Marina Petrano) is at a party with college kids out in the middle of Borley Forest. She is in high school and is supposed to be meeting her friend Ava there. Ava never shows and since she doesn't really know anyone, Paige wanders off. Seeing some rope in a tree, she touches it and a ghostly figure appears nearby. Before she sees it though, someone she knows asks if she is ready to leave. Once home, she gets busted by her parents for not being where she said she was going to be at and gets grounded. After a few nights, Paige begins to believe that something is visiting her. The Borley Forest is said to be haunted and it looks like something has followed her from there. It might be linked to some disappearances from the 1950s. When one of Paige's friends is attacked during a sleepover, Paige decides it is time to figure out what is going on. With the help of her brother (Christopher Ingle) and Ava (Weston Adwell), will the be able to get to the bottom of this before someone gets hurt or worse?
The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest was co-written by Kimberly Britt and R. Presley Stephens, who also directed. I admit that I wasn't expecting much at all from this movie going into it. I checked the ratings before going in and they are very low. To my surprise, I didn't hate it as much as others before me apparently. I didn't love it and as you will see from my rating, I didn't give it the best score either. My main problem with this movie is that it tends to drag a bit in places. Coming in at 102 minutes, it would have done some good if it had been cut back some. Paige has experienced someone stalking her prior to the events in this movie, so she doesn't trust Cooper, played by Nicholas Barrera, when he starts showing interest in her. He fails to mention that he sort of knows Paige because he works for her brother which sets off a red flag for Paige. Cooper comes off as a nice guy so it does get annoying when the writers keep trying to hammer the point home that Paige doesn't really trust him at all. We get it. We don't need three or four scenes where she gets mad at him and/or accuses him of stalking her. There are a few scenes that either beat information over your head or they just feel like they are going on for too long. The story wasn't all that bad to me. This was way more of a ghost story than a poltergeist, but whatever. There is a bit of a backstory for the ghost, which I thought was pretty cool. There wasn't a lot of information, much of which is still mysterious, but there was just enough in order to understand what the ghost wants. The writers also do a good job of giving us a good vibe for what the family is like. There isn't a lot of backstory for the family, but you will still get to know them. I will give the writers credit for at least doing that.
There isn't a lot of effects to be found. Most of them have to do with the ghost. I was assuming that some of the effects that make the ghost look nothing more than a shadow were nothing more than CGI. Even if it wasn't, most of the time it looked pretty bad. Sometimes the ghostly effects, there is also one that makes the ghost flicker or blurs some, don't look too bad. Even so, not the best effects around. The acting wasn't great but I didn't have all that much of a problem with it in general. Some of the acting was kind of bad, mostly by the supporting cast. This is Marina Petrano's first and so far only role. I looked her up just to see if she might still be acting and discovered that Marina is a fairly well-known contortionist and circus performer. Apparently, she took up acting and ended up staring in The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest. Who knows, maybe we will see her in another movie someday.
Another problem that I had with The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest was with the ending. There is a bit of a twist right at the end of the film. I thought it might happen, but wasn't sure until it started to play out. It wasn't the twist itself that I didn't like. I thought the twist was pretty good actually. It was more the placement of the twist. If it had come earlier in the movie, I probably wouldn't have had a problem with it. With it showing up right at the end though, it leaves the story still completely open. After 102 minutes, there is no real ending. I realize a lot of other films do this, but I guess with this being a low budget film and all, I was just expecting an ending where it wraps everything up. If you give The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest a try, just know it isn't a well-liked movie. I saw some positive things with it but there just wasn't enough to overcome the long run time and scenes that go on for too long. Even so, if you are looking for a story driven film, you might try giving this movie a shot.
2 out of 5 Maybe she should have tried following the ghost around
Paige (Marina Petrano) is at a party with college kids out in the middle of Borley Forest. She is in high school and is supposed to be meeting her friend Ava there. Ava never shows and since she doesn't really know anyone, Paige wanders off. Seeing some rope in a tree, she touches it and a ghostly figure appears nearby. Before she sees it though, someone she knows asks if she is ready to leave. Once home, she gets busted by her parents for not being where she said she was going to be at and gets grounded. After a few nights, Paige begins to believe that something is visiting her. The Borley Forest is said to be haunted and it looks like something has followed her from there. It might be linked to some disappearances from the 1950s. When one of Paige's friends is attacked during a sleepover, Paige decides it is time to figure out what is going on. With the help of her brother (Christopher Ingle) and Ava (Weston Adwell), will the be able to get to the bottom of this before someone gets hurt or worse?
The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest was co-written by Kimberly Britt and R. Presley Stephens, who also directed. I admit that I wasn't expecting much at all from this movie going into it. I checked the ratings before going in and they are very low. To my surprise, I didn't hate it as much as others before me apparently. I didn't love it and as you will see from my rating, I didn't give it the best score either. My main problem with this movie is that it tends to drag a bit in places. Coming in at 102 minutes, it would have done some good if it had been cut back some. Paige has experienced someone stalking her prior to the events in this movie, so she doesn't trust Cooper, played by Nicholas Barrera, when he starts showing interest in her. He fails to mention that he sort of knows Paige because he works for her brother which sets off a red flag for Paige. Cooper comes off as a nice guy so it does get annoying when the writers keep trying to hammer the point home that Paige doesn't really trust him at all. We get it. We don't need three or four scenes where she gets mad at him and/or accuses him of stalking her. There are a few scenes that either beat information over your head or they just feel like they are going on for too long. The story wasn't all that bad to me. This was way more of a ghost story than a poltergeist, but whatever. There is a bit of a backstory for the ghost, which I thought was pretty cool. There wasn't a lot of information, much of which is still mysterious, but there was just enough in order to understand what the ghost wants. The writers also do a good job of giving us a good vibe for what the family is like. There isn't a lot of backstory for the family, but you will still get to know them. I will give the writers credit for at least doing that.
There isn't a lot of effects to be found. Most of them have to do with the ghost. I was assuming that some of the effects that make the ghost look nothing more than a shadow were nothing more than CGI. Even if it wasn't, most of the time it looked pretty bad. Sometimes the ghostly effects, there is also one that makes the ghost flicker or blurs some, don't look too bad. Even so, not the best effects around. The acting wasn't great but I didn't have all that much of a problem with it in general. Some of the acting was kind of bad, mostly by the supporting cast. This is Marina Petrano's first and so far only role. I looked her up just to see if she might still be acting and discovered that Marina is a fairly well-known contortionist and circus performer. Apparently, she took up acting and ended up staring in The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest. Who knows, maybe we will see her in another movie someday.
Another problem that I had with The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest was with the ending. There is a bit of a twist right at the end of the film. I thought it might happen, but wasn't sure until it started to play out. It wasn't the twist itself that I didn't like. I thought the twist was pretty good actually. It was more the placement of the twist. If it had come earlier in the movie, I probably wouldn't have had a problem with it. With it showing up right at the end though, it leaves the story still completely open. After 102 minutes, there is no real ending. I realize a lot of other films do this, but I guess with this being a low budget film and all, I was just expecting an ending where it wraps everything up. If you give The Poltergeist Of Borley Forest a try, just know it isn't a well-liked movie. I saw some positive things with it but there just wasn't enough to overcome the long run time and scenes that go on for too long. Even so, if you are looking for a story driven film, you might try giving this movie a shot.
2 out of 5 Maybe she should have tried following the ghost around
