Redundant and unnecessary.

A Brilliant Conflict

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Like most of the reviews I have read, I'm not going to comment on the bad acting, cheesy dialogue, or lack of a decent story. As someone who was actually raised in Fall River, I am more disappointed in the lack of trying when it came to the authenticity. Wherever this film was shot doesn't resemble Fall River or Lizzie Bordens house in the least bit. The style of house, the pool in the back yard, or the first house. Seriously there were even palm trees in the yard. Terrible movie aside, they made my hometown look like a white picket fence suburbia. And made a mockery of a hometown legend. Oh and fyi the real house is a Victorian style B&B in the historical district. Hands down worst Lizzie Borden movie I've ever seen.

'American Poltergeist' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews. It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'American Poltergeist' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is really nothing to recommend.Lets start with the sole positive. The setting, while simplistic, is fairly spooky at times.Unfortunately, it is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited and the drab colour palette, so much so it was hard to appreciate it, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness. Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on and extremely awkward prolonged pauses. Donna Spangler and the wooden lead are especially bad.Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour that makes some of the film play like a really bad spoof and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both incredibly poorly done.A lot of 'American Poltergeist' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random and aggressive with the subtlety of an axe. This is very dreary and amateurish stuff.Overall, awful with no redeeming value apart from an element that is difficult to appreciate with it being complemented so badly. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Between the college girls dressed like hookers to the nonsensical plot , I still kept watching hoping it would get better. This movie rips off Scream, The Ring, Friday the 13th among others. Where is the Poltergeist in this movie? What's up with the creepy cop? College kids doing an exorcism? Let's get the Catholic kid to do it! The acting is the worst I have seen in any movie.

What an absolute treat this film was. The acting was unforgettable I'm looking to direct my own film and would love these very talented individuals to star in it. Plot line was completely original, frightening and disturbing. I was gripped from start to finish whist hanging off the edge of my seat.Cinematography was first class I believe there should be an award given to this masterpiece.I would recommend this film to everyone who appreciates the finer things in life.By the way I am a horrible troll and the only good thing about this movie is reading the reviews about it, there are actually some people who have rated it 8 and 9 and not even in a horrible sarcastic way like myself, I can only speculate that they came from individuals who had been promised filthy and depraved sex acts after the fact, shame on them. The ones that really tickled me were the 3/10 ratings, to have seen films worse than this I genuinely feel sorry for them.I apologize if you actually rented/bought this steaming pile of excrement on my recommendation, I seriously couldn't help myself although I do feel bad already. This is without a doubt the worst thing that has ever happened in the world to date.I did say one true thing I am making my own film it's a snuff movie, I would love to personally do horrible and despicable things to these sorry excuses for actors before finally ending their miserable lives in ways I can only describe as deeply pornographic and disturbing.Thanks for reading my review, if you found it helpful please leave a thumbs up.