The Ghosts of Edendale (2003)

Pretty Good

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I've seen a lot of people saying how bad this movie is... I think I understand why they didn't like it.1. It doesn't contain the special effects most people take for granted.2. It doesn't have an ending where there is a definitive winner per se... thus it can leave the viewer unsatisfied as they only want set answers.. usually where the bad guy wins.3. Not all That much happens.. the movie is based on you the viewer trying to work out what is going to happen and when...You end up while watching this movie trying to figure out how much is real and how much in the imagination of the female lead.You are given the information quite early on that she "sees" things after she sees a little boy in the cupboard who just runs away.The movie progresses from there with the turning point happening as she goes away for 5 days to a shoot which you know the husband isn't keen on.From there on hubby gets more and more wooden acting as though he were not quite sure how to react or respond to anything save for being mean.It does appear at first as though the guy doesn't know how to act, but in actual fact, watching it carefully you can see where he has taken on the role of the character who is supposed to be possessing him.There is only one definite murder in the entire film, and the ghosts themselves hurt no one... as with the rumours of ghosts, the only thing their role is for is to scare the hell out of the lead female who grows more and more paranoid up to the climax.The special effects are used nicely showing only as much as is necessary to make you jump if you're concentrating on it. With a nice trick of using the scenery to make it appear as though she is imagining everything still.. and apart from the death itself that Does happen.. you are left wondering even after the final credits roll...How much is in her mind...How much is real.I'd recommend watching this but don't expect to see tons of blood.. in fact.. don't expect to see Any blood. For someone who doesn't watch horror films to get grossed out... this film was fantastic.Rebby.

About 10 minutes into the movie, as the handyman started working on the hot tub... my friend turned to me and said "Wait a minute, is this movie a porno?" I opened my mouth to say "No", but I hesitated. I rented this movie without knowing anything about it. The rental store DID stock pornos. All I could say was "I'm... I'm not sure. I thought it was a ghost story." After about 20 minutes my friend started eyeing the clock saying "Hey, come on, 'Alias' is about to start." I said "Shhh.. just give it a chance." This was the second rental I had brought to my friend's house. The first one had bombed, I wasn't ready to give up and declare myself 0-for-2 so quickly.Then the two lead characters disrobed, and climbed into the hot tub. *Egad!* I thought. *It IS a porno!* But after a two minute sexcapade in the hot tub, and not a single flash of explicit nudity, the lead actress spotted an evil face ON the fence behind the hot tub.That's when it all sank in. This movie was actually trying to be scary! I sighed, suddenly I was far less forgiving of all the shortcomings of this movie. Sure, I can excuse a cheaply-filmed and flatly-written movie if it's a porno, but this was a legitimate attempt at serious film-making. Oh, and on to some real gripes about the movie: If the special effects are not the strong point of your film, why feature them so prominently? Particularly throughout the climax? If anyone was taking the movie seriously up until then the deluge of effects would have killed it for them. Fortunately for me and my friend it provided some much needed laughs as a reward for sticking it out through this entire movie.0-for-2. Thanks "Ghosts of Edendale"! And P.S.: I'll try and keep this part vague, so it doesn't act as a spoiler... but come on! She left her sister to go get BOXES?!? Are you kidding me?

I grew up in the Hills of the Silverlake area. I study the history of the old red cars and movie studios. Let me tell you there is more to this movie than meets the eye. I really enjoyed the way it was done. Spirits of hard working men and women really do exits. There is something about old Hollywood. The Movie really stirred up memories of my childhood. Digging up old artifacts, and getting spooked out by things in those dark hills. Not to mention the crazy homeless people. Don't be fooled by some of the things that a bigger budget could have fixed. I think to many people miss a good premise if they are so quick to criticize a movie based upon it's shortcomings. Although this movie is low budget I really had a nice evening of it. So sit back, get some popcorn, and just enjoy a little bit of Hollywood history done in a clever fashion.

Paula Ficara is a talented actress, but it's unfortunate that she was given such a weak, stilted script to work with. The remainder of the cast were just cardboard cutouts of what the characters should have been. Granted, the ghost story that is tied into the early days of Hollywood is quite interesting. The cinematography looked like poorly lit mini-DV with blown out shots and poorly framed subjects, with edits being loosely done making shots appear as if they dragged on too long, needlessly. The one saving grace, aside from Ms. Ficara, were the special FX which were very well done indeed. The film did get better about 1.25 hours into it, but by that point you couldn't care one way or the other what happened. Then it was, thankfully, over.