Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

evanston_dad "Haunts" is a movie that put me in the mind of films like Robert Altman's "That Cold Day in the Park" and "Images" or Roman Polanski's "Repulsion." Stories about lonely women whose obsessions and mental wanderings leave the viewer in doubt about what is real and what's the result of the heroines' fevered imaginings, and that often end in violent acts carried out by the women in their own defense. Of course "Haunts" isn't anywhere nearly as good as any of those other films. It uses a serial killer premise as a red herring, but presents the protagonist's story literally, not even suggesting that there may be some doubt about what's real and what's not until what amounts to a surprise ending makes us realize that the woman was cuckoo all along. That ending is admittedly rather effective, but because there was no mystery leading up to it and the film itself is rather poorly made in most regards, it doesn't have much of an impact.It didn't help that I saw "Haunts" as part of a boxed set of terrible picture and sound quality, but I doubt that high def and pristine sound would have made me like this film much more. It's mostly just boring, which is one of the worst offenses of which a film can be guilty.Grade: D+

Zeegrade This was a real chore to watch. I'm not exaggerating when I say that at least thirty minutes can be cut off this clunker without missing any plot lines whatsoever. May Britt plays Ingrid, the most unlikeable main character in movie history. Not only is she the coldest fish on earth but she's also a fierce man-hater. The small town she lives in has been plagued with murders committed by a scissor wielding madman. This makes Ingrid even more unbearable to be around as every breathing man she comes into contact with is automatically trying to rape her. Number one on her list is the town rowdy Frankie who also works as the butcher in the local market when he's not having a very inappropriate relationship with the sheriff's seventeen year old daughter. This would be fine had the man playing Frankie not appear to be in his late thirties at least. What's more absurd is that Ingrid constantly refers to him as "that boy". Ingrid lives alone (no surprise there) on a farm but is helped on occasion by her Uncle Carl played by B-movie king Cameron Mitchell. Did I mention that she also has hallucinations too? Usually the incoherent flashbacks come over her every few seconds. Rubbing a goat, flashback, feeling a bed sheet, flashback, someone closes a door, flashback. Ingrid comes upon a corpse left on her property and that pushes her off the mental edge she was teetering on to begin with. The ending is quite bizarre as Ingrid's fate as well as the relationship between her uncle and her mother are slapped across you face like a dead salmon.I couldn't care less what happened to Ingrid because her performance was as dead as the person she portrays. We are lead to believe that she was raised in this small California coastal town yet her thick accent begs to differ. This is explained near the end as the time she spent at "a European school up the coast". What? Did they suck the life force from her too? Let's hope Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory is better.

Kenneth Eagle Spirit This film has only one downside for me and that is being very slow in spots, particularly towards the end. About 15 minutes of this flick could, honestly, have been sacrificed to the cutting room floor with no real loss. Other than that its really pretty good. Cameron Mitchell plays his part very well. Aldo ray does his job as sheriff and lends quality to a well developed character. William Gray Espy does very well in his role, and both Kendal Jackson and Susan Nohr deserve recognition. But the real star is, fittingly enough, the lead, May Britt. She does a wonderful job in portraying a very troubled woman with deep seated emotional problems. The part I liked the best? It was so easy to figure out, until I figured out that I was wrong. Three times in a row. And then? SURPRISE!

Sturgeon54 I think the other reviewers here and elsewhere (myself included) were thrown off by the fact that the video distributors have incorrectly packaged this as another cheap '70s slasher/exploitation movie, and that's the reason for the negative reviews. This film is meant for a completely different audience. I myself started to become disappointed partway through the film when there was little action, but then I realized that this is not a typical slasher flick, but more of a Stephen King-style psychological horror film about the demons of small town life. That is when I started to enjoy it. Like King's novels, the story builds slowly, and there are several peripheral characters who may seem unimportant to the main storyline but contribute to the overall atmosphere. The movie does not have much gore or any nudity, but this is the kind of film that succeeds almost purely through its vivid, austere atmosphere, which was done so well that some of it reminded me of the work of Ingmar Bergman. The film isn't perfect, but director Freed shows a good eye for detail, and the washout cinematography is striking. I had never seen any of the actors elsewhere, but May Britt's lead performance was very competent. This is definitely not the kind of film for hardcore horror film buffs, as it doesn't fit under that genre category very well. Rather, it is a film for more serious, patient viewers who can appreciate a slower pace without instant rewards. For them, this is well-worth checking out.