A Haunting at Preston Castle

aka Preston Castle

Director - Martin Rosenberg

Starring - Mackenzie Firgens (The Hamiltons, The Thompsons), Heather Tocquigny (Insidious, Frankenstein Rising), and Jake White (Children of the Corn '09, Captured)

Release Date - 2012

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Evil is forever"

Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Ghost stories are starting to get on my fucking nerves just like all these fucking Walking Dead clones.  I love a good ghost story so don't take that the wrong way.  When I was a kid I would watch Unsolved Mysteries and my favorite episodes involved the supernatural.  My grandmother had a movie on VHS called Ghost Story which is an amazing supernatural horror flick.  This is one of the few ghost flicks that sends chills down my spine.  Sadly, the supernatural sub-genre is in a state of shit right now thanks to Paranormal Activity and A Haunting in Connecticut.  These films are modern classics that went on to drive an interest in the paranormal even years after television had been tossing reality shows on the subject at us in full force.  Now, every time I'm at Wal-Mart and FYE I see a new movie titled Paranormal something and A Haunting somewhere different.  Late last year I was sent the paranormal horror flick A Haunting at Preston Castle to review from the fine folks over at Inception Media Group.  Thanks for letting me check this one out!

     The film follows two young girls who are looking for a little fun until they run into a young man who convinces them to go check out Preston Castle.  The place is known for being haunted and tale has it that a man went inside the building a few decades ago and never returned.  They decide to go and check it out where strange things start to happen to them. They see strange things at first and then begin to hear them.  They, for some fucked up reason, decide to split up and that is when shit hits the fan.

     Atmosphere and story are two things needed to make a ghost story worth a damn.  Without either then all you have is jump scares and no idea what the fuck is going on.  Someone did not tell A Haunting at Preston Castle this because they lacked both those things creating one of the worst movie experiences I have seen in a long ass time.  The acting in this one is decent at times while at others it is a chore to watch.  The cast is not consistent in their roles and when things go bleak they toss the acting out the window and act like they don't have any fucking sense.  This ruined several pivotal scenes.  What the cast really needed was direction and they clearly did not get it.  The story for this one is one told so many times before with nothing new added and told in the blandest of ways.  The film puts three youths in a castle where things pop up here and there and translucent figures walk down corridors and door ways.  In the middle of all this is the same youths screaming like they have never acted before resulting in a real chore of a film to finish.  Originality is key.  Finally, the film does not have any real practical effects nor goes it have blood and gore that horror fans are looking for.  Instead, we are given pretty great looking CGI but that does not add to the film whatsoever.  Overall, A Haunting at Preston Castle is a complete fail at making a film.  The director has some amazing credits on his IMDB for over 30 years but sitting in the director's chair should not be one of them.  Skip this one.