Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Yvonne Jodi Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

langleyt I enjoyed the movie very much in the way of the thrill of a haunted house goes. The lead actor was a little leaning toward the B level, but overall he was compelling to watch. I don't know if any of the following has any 'Spoilers', but just in case... I didn't get exactly the fundamental meaning of the end until I read a review on another site, and still I felt it lacking. If the mother was supposed to be apologetic, she had a deadly way of showing it. And the 'apology' was just a bit too late. Also, I felt the aunt was a frightening character in the beginning scene, but I never got a good reason for her horrified look. Just what exactly was the last thing she saw anyway? A ghost, lol. And finally, on the negative comments, I wanted to see what would be passed on the the main character's family, his wife and son; tangible and non-tangible. Overall, the creepiness of the movie was great, and kept the viewer interested. The house was beautiful and made me want to enter it's doors for whatever reason, good or bad. Tom Arnold is great!! I screamed out loud when he scared the living daylights out of Tim Daly, ha ha. I also loved Daly's reaction to finding the doll in the trunk; his 'a-little-over-the-top' response was justified in this case. It was a movie worth the time to watch and memorable as any haunting should be.

Anthony Pittore III (Shattered_Wake) After the death of his aunt, level-headed lawyer Bryan Becket (Timothy Daly of 'Wings') moves into her old house to get things in order with her estate. After learning the house was signed over to a paranormal research lab instead of to him, the unbelieving Bryan begins to delve into the mysteries of the house which his seemingly senile aunt believed to be haunted by malevolent forces. As the days pass and his experiences begin to mirror those of his aunt's, Bryan begins to question his own lack of beliefs and fights to find answers to what is happening in the house.When this film was first being released, the cast list certainly confused quite a few people. Tim Daly & Tom Arnold have both been fairly out of the limelight since the '90s, which was where the vast majority of their fame came & went. Therefore, it wasn't a huge surprise to see them working in the low-budget, straight-to-video horror sector which is many careers come to die (though Daly is a talented actor, I must say). However, added to those two was an up-and-coming A-list star: the beautiful Zoë Saldaña, who has been featured in such recent blockbusters as 'Star Trek' and 'Avatar.' She was really the selling point to many, and it really was a blessing to this film to have her because I'm sure it would've been seen by a great lot less than it even was.The film itself does, in fact, warrant a viewing though, with or without the inclusion of Zoë. While haunted-house flicks are not rare to come by in any sector of horror, quality ones or even ones worthy of a watch are very hard to come by. Many horror fans would be hard-pressed to name more than a few solid haunt flicks from the past few years. The main reason for this, perhaps, is because the lack of focus on suspense & tension, which is a shame because those are the elements of good horror that don't require a big budget, just talented filmmakers. For this reason, it's always a real pleasure to find one that slips under the radar and can rise above the rest as a "hidden gem." It seems that 'The Skeptic' can fill that role pretty well.From a technical standpoint, it is a cut above most straight-to-video horror films, which often have a very cheap & unappealing look to them. Newcomer writer/director Tennyson Bardwell (could there be a better name for a writer?) shows some real talent behind the camera, especially with the help of his editing team led by Ann Marie Lizzi. The script, though lacking in anything spectacularly fresh or original, keeps a pace that never races too fast or slows too much. It did not seem, at any point, to be boring, which can be a disastrous problem for many haunted-house horrors. The acting from Daly & Saldaña was solid, as expected, even with Daly's character being painfully frustrating for much of the film. Then there was Tom Arnold who was his usual annoyingly over-the-top self. Even more annoying than his acting was the fact that he now sounds like he has a perpetually stuffed nose à la Chuckie Finster from 'Rugrats.' Other than that, though, there isn't much to complain about. It does have quite a few chilling scenes and a couple of seriously creepy moments, helped along by both the visual teams and the script.Overall, the film is not perfect as anyone will see, but what it does right makes it worth the time. It is a solidly creepy & very effective haunted-house thriller with enough mystery, suspense, and scares to keep fans of the subgenre pleased for its 90 minute runtime.Final Verdict: 6.5/10 -AP3-

Scarecrow-88 Tim Daly stars as successful lawyer Bryan Becket, a very vocal non believer who doesn't adhere to any sort of religious philosophy, psychiatry, supernatural, or psychic phenomena(it also includes astrology and the belief in the Loch Ness monster). In short, Becket doesn't believe in anything other than what the senses tell us. This all changes, though, when he starts staying in his dead aunt's house, and the specter of a woman starts appearing(and whispering)to him.Tom Arnold is Daly's partner at their firm, Sully, often the butt of many jokes because he's the polar opposite of Becket..in short, he believes almost in everything. Estranged from a very good wife, Robin(Andrea Roth) who loves him and has tolerated a lot of unnecessary stress thanks to her "unemotional" husband, Becket uses his time(it's a good enough excuse)at the other house in an attempt to prepare for a big case coming up. But, the woman that keeps popping up distracts Becket from the task at hand. Becket has a lot of childhood baggage that he has kept buried from when he was five years old regarding his mother's death(she fell down a flight of steps down a stairwell), which could relate to what is currently "haunting" him. Robert Prosky is Father Wymond, the Priest of his aunt's Catholic church(she wasn't exactly a devout Catholic, though), and a good friend to atheist Becket who, while frowning upon religion of any kind, often enjoys chatting with him despite their differences. Edward Herrmann is Dr. Shepard, a shrink who worked with Becket when he was a kid and maybe knows more about Bryan's past than he is admitting. The sexy Zoe Saldana( pre-Star Trek stardom)has a supporting role as a psychic, Cassie, who helps Becket address the missing bits of his past, confronting those horrible memories that begin to surface. Bruce Altman is Dr. Warren Koven, a "sleep specialist" whose institute was actually listed on Becket's aunt's will to inherit the house Bryan covets..Becket goes to Koven, who doesn't believe in the supernatural, but applies science to the unexplained, in need of advice regarding what he is experiencing in the house.It was supposed to be a simple stay for a little while, sell off the valuable antiques and other properties, then the house itself, but, instead, Becket encounters far more than he could've imagined. We learn than Becket has been suffering sleep deprivation, not to mention, night terrors, reliving past memories without knowing it(Robin informs Bryan of this fact that he talks in his sleep, awakening in horror at the abuse from his mother). Solid cast in this ghost story where someone who has been shaped by the experiences of his past, must come face to face with that monster that has never truly left him. The ending, to me, is rather startling in how it concludes the "relationship" between mother and son. It seems that Becket is being tormented by his mom out of some sort of revenge for something he might've done, as if what she did to him as a child wasn't enough. Yet, the final reel actually goes in a completely different direction, and we see that mother had other plans all along.

hwthorn-1 I'm not going to add much to whats already been said except that the ending (for me) wasn't that vague. Christopher Armstead (Film Critics United) said this;"The final scene shows Bryan either dead or unconscious, once again a little boy, going to a sunny picnic with his mother. Either the mother's ghost is trying to atone for past sins or Bryan's subconscious is creating the mother he always wanted with choice two being the logical conclusion for me".I tend to lean toward the first choice. Thru death his mother has taken him back to the time he should have been the happiest and released him from all the turmoil and inhibitions the horrible experiences of his childhood placed on his life; albeit, he had to (die?) to get there. It is a ghost story after all.