Best movie ever!

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Grindstone Road: Directed by Melanie Orr and written by Paul GermannGrindstone Road is another movie where a couple after having suffered a tragedy moving from the great big city to a country home with a devastating secret. You've seen this movie before probably about a million different times. Fairuza Balk is the only reason this movie was even on my radar. I have put a moratorium on movies like this. I think I've seen enough movies like this to last me a very long time. This is a by the book ordinary film trying to be creepy and failing miserably in the process. We were able to guess every little thing that happened throughout this dull and generic mess. I'm not sure what time period this is designed to take place in but it features the usual staples of landline phones not working out in the country, going to the library to look at old newspapers rather than searching for these very same things online. This is what most of us would do now. This is why I think it must be in a different time period. I imagine the writer might be trying to bring back this type of story. I wish they hadn't and also wish they hadn't drug Fairuza Balk into this boring nonsense. The visual style of the movie is very flat. Nothing really pops out until the scenes in the afterlife but even then it's rudimentary. They try for those jump scares but fail immensely. Every type of scare it attempts flops horribly. The main thing about this story is the atmosphere and they can't even figure this one out. This movie is a dull, lazy and boring mess. Skip it.I give this movie a D.

Another cheap haunted house movie that comes to us from Canada. This is a cookie-cutter filmmaking experience with dark and gloomy cinematography and a cast who feel that their hearts aren't really in it. Fairuza Balk (THE CRAFT), unrecognisably aged, plays a grieving housewife whose son has been left in a coma after a car accident. She's heavily medicated and starts experiencing weird visions.You can guess the rest from here. It's another is-she-going-out-of-her-mind-or-isn't-she? type plot of the kind which has been done to death over and over again throughout the years. This low budget tale brings nothing new to the table. Balk is dull and the rest of the cast even duller. The scenes of her being menaced by a CGI-faced kid are laughable. The director throws in some clichéd jump scares to startle the viewer and the story finishes with the silliest twist ever. GRINDSTONE ROAD? A grind to watch, more like.

Okay, I understand that this movie has problems. I wont deny that. However in terms of your standard low budget ghost house flick...this is above average.I think at this point its important to note that I am a huge fan of Fairuza Balk. Her acting in this was actually pretty believable and it did provide the film with the best performance. I should mention that because I'm a fan of her, the rating was never altered in any way just because she's in it.Hannah was in a car crash with her 11 year old son, Daniel. She made it out okay but Daniel is in a coma. A year later Daniel is still in a coma but Hannah hasn't lost any hope that he'll wake up. She moves to a house with her husband, Graham (played by Greg Bryk). Suffering from feelings of extreme guilt, Hannah takes antidepressants and sleeping pills. She then begins to see things in the house. Graham believes that the medication is just producing a side effect and she discovers from one of her neighbors that a boy went missing (also aged 11 and also named Daniel) and she begins to look for the clues that might point her to what happened to him.As I said before, I am aware that this movie has problems. I mean the scariest jump scares in the movie are a little boy chanting, water and pipes rattling. However some of this set up, you have to admit, is pretty damn well done. Firstly, the kid in the car crash adds depth to the character of Hannah. She has prayed and never given up hope that her son will wake up. The use of her medication is also pretty well done because it does leave the door open to "this could all be some nervous breakdown" and Fairuza pulls this off brilliantly. This is the only thing about the film that is even remotely creepy, (the Is it psychological? Is it real? type thing)I think I should mention some of the bad aspects too. The jump scares in this film are AWFUL and overused (you have a great psychological scare set up and you don't rely on that?), the third act is rushed and clichéd (and almost ruined an otherwise pretty well done film) and this one can kind of be blamed on nitpicking but the house on the cover isn't the house they're in. The house on the cover is wooden, rectangular and more like a cabin. The house in the movie is brick, 2 stories high rounded and actually looks like a decent enough place to live in. Take this however you want to. I mean I like that it didn't go for the traditional haunted house look but at the same time...they couldn't get a photo of it to put on the cover of their movie?In terms of what I liked...the acting is pretty well done from most performers. At some points Greg Bryk left a lot to be desired as did Joan Gregson but as a whole their performances were okay. The cinematography is actually quite well put together (it is by far the most visually stunning haunted house film in years), the sets were well done.So see this how you will. Its not a great horror movie but I don't think it was trying to be. At least, unlike your average Paranormal Activity film, there is some effort. The set up could've made way for an excellent film it just needed more time in the writers lap to correct mistakes. If you want to see a film that attempts jump scares but is actually more effective at psychological scares and creating mood, I'd say check it out. It might have a few bad things about it but its not as bad as what the other reviewers make it out to be.

Bad writing, bad direction, bad editing, bad acting. It has it all. Frankly, I enjoy a good low budget feature, but I can't tolerate a strung-together series of the most clichéd scenes imaginable. Wandering into a dark basement alone at night? Make-you-jump loud sounds, in lieu of true scares? A husband who doesn't believe his stressed-out wife? The ol' disappearing "evil water" routine? And that in just the first thirty minutes.And, what's with the fade-to-black between scenes? It's amateurish and distracting.The set-dressing is horrible. It calls attention to itself in almost every location.Frankly, I couldn't finish the film. A "script supervisor" position is obviously not the best experience for direction, just as a "sound editor" most likely has no business jumping into writing screenplays.There's a reason this waste of time went directly to video, although I assume that was the intention from the beginning.