Amanda (Evalina Nilsson) and her best friend Denise (Johanna Annersand)
set out to explore the house Amanda has just moved into with her mum (Lollo B
Eriksson) and stepdad Bruce (Michel Abou Rjeili), a house that has once
been an orphanage where kids were tortured, killed and sold into slavery
which is supposed to be haunted. Amanda and Denise soon discover a secret
passageway in the basement ... and a ghost boy (Linus Josefsson), who
scares them shitless. But despite the fact that the basement seems to be
(especially) haunted, the girls decide to return their time and again -
and it also holds a fascination for other people, all of whom think there's a treasure down there but who are killed by a hooded ghost (not
the ghost boy). Eventually, Amanda and Denise talk to neighbour Jackson (Roger
Bylund) and his granddaughter Ashley
(Sandra Eriksson) about the spooky goings-on, and learn that the hooded
ghost might actually be the former owner of the place, who was burned a
witch, and the boy might be one of her victims. Ultimately though, Jackson
and Ashley also turn out to be after the treasure, and even find it and
lock Amanda and Denise up in the haunted basement - but are then killed by
the hooded ghost while Amanda and Denise are saved by the ghost boy who
turns out to be on their side. Amanda manages zo convince mum and stepdad to blow up
the house, and especially the basement, and in the end they succeed, but
not before stepdad and Denise are killed. An old-fashioned
haunted house movie that shows plenty of good intentions, but fails to
fully deliver: The script is decent but could have done with a bit of
ironing out the rough spots (like why do the girls constantly want to go
back to the basement for no reason at all after being scared shitless and
threatened every time), the direction does its best to create atmosphere
but is time and again let down by the Spartan sets, half of the cast hams
up their roles way too much, and why was this shot in English when pretty
much all the actors have difficulties with the language and thus their
delivery of dialogue is terribly stiff. To the film's defense of course,
there are way worse haunted house pictures out there, but that's not to
say that this one is anywhere near perfect ...
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