Directed by: Michael Tiddes
Screenplay by: Marlon Wayans and Rick Alvarez
Year: 2013
Oh dear. Another one. Much like the Scary Movie franchise, A Haunted House is a spoof/parody of horror films with the intent of being comedic...and just like the Scary Movie films, it fails...miserably.
A Haunted House is about a couple that has recently moved in together only to find that the home is haunted by a ghost.
The performances in this film are...actually not too bad. They're not decent, but not unbearable either. Marlon Wayans plays Malcolm and Essence Atkins plays Kisha. Malcolm and Kisha have recently moved in together and frequently argue with each other (even though they are a supposedly happy couple). To their credit, the actors look like their having fun. The two leads actually have good chemistry together. I can honestly say that it is the best part about the film, but that is all I can really say. Everyone in this film seems like they are starring in a home-made film. And every character is so weird or awkward to the point where they are unbelievable (I am aware that this is a parody but still...)
The direction is uninspired. I know that because the film is making fun of the found footage genre it must therefore be a found footage film, but the direction is stale nonetheless. The way the camera angles are worked are simply atrocious. Some shots just really show the laziness of filming something in the found footage genre.
But the film is not aiming to be anything innovative in the first place. It's meant to be a comedy. And on that front...it crashes and burns, magnificently. I am not lying when I say that I can count all the times I laughed during this film on a single hand. And it was never more than a chuckle. Honestly, the screenplay (if there even was one) was filled to the brim with stupidity and unnecessary things. The film treats its audiences with the same stupidity that the script treats the humor.
Being a parody, the film's main objective is to make fun of horror films. But it doesn't do that, it can't do that, not with this script at least. I read somewhere that Wayans (who helped produce the film) said that the purpose of A Haunted House was not to necessarily make fun of the horror genre but show how differently black people react to the situations in such films. But it can't even do that because it also changes how the ghost interacts with the protagonists, which completely negates the point of the film if we were to follow Wayans' statement.
And as if that weren't enough, the film REALLY loses itself in the last act. I'm talking about when Kisha becomes possessed. There is a major tonal shift that was unnecessary. Once this happens, the film reaches its lowest point. The direction becomes worse, the story vanishes into thin air, the characters become even stupider...it's just a mess. Plain and simple, A Haunted House is an atrocious, horrible, terrible mess. It ignores good direction, good performances, or even a good story. And this would all be fine with it being a parody...if only it was funny. But sadly, it's not. It is painful to watch and hardly memorable. Though I saw it not too long ago, I could barely recall anything about the film. I had to re-watch most of it to refresh my memory. It is a mess of a film, and I would advise you stay away from it.
Grade: F
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