When I first heard about this “The Haunting of Alice” I noticed that had appearances from Kane Hodder from Friday the 13th fame and former WWE/ECW/TNA wrestler Al Snow. It got me interested almost immediately. It also helped that it has won a couple of awards on the film festival circuit.
The film is about a haunted house in the late 1890’s known as the Davenport House where a young girl killed her captors committed suicide after dealing with years of slavery and brutality. Fast forward to today, where the latest owner of the house is throwing a party with drugs and prostitutes. Soon, strange things begin happening at the house as the ghost of Alice D is haunting the halls and out for revenge. Now, the partygoers must a way to survive her before their souls become permanent residents inside the Davenport House.
Sometimes with supernatural films, I can get very bored very quickly as they tend to move at a slow pace. Thankfully “The Haunting of Alice D” doesn’t follow that trend, as this film was an intense chiller that focuses on scares and characters.
One of the reason that this film worked so well with me was it direction. First time director and co-star Jessica Sonneborn does a very good job with the direction. What make her direction work was the fact that she’s able keep everything moving at a good pace including the dialogue scenes. It helped kept my interest and not drift away into scenes that typically slow the film down like some supernatural films tend to do. She also handles the horrific aspects well. Sonneborn does a good job making sure the action feels creepy and frightening. It helps with making horror aspects work onscreen as I was glued to the screen. Another thing that makes the direction good was the way she directs the performances. I liked how Sonneborn makes sure the cast had good chemistry with each other. It made the performance good especially towards the end of the film.
The screenplay also written by Sonneborn does a very good job providing scares that is needed to keep you on edge. She makes sure that they are timed well enough so it can go into the film’s story and characters. This helps makes the scary and bloody moments work so well. The other thing that I liked about the screenplay was the fact that it spends time with its characters and the mythology of the story. By doing that, it helped make me interested in the characters and the backstory on the house that the film has. Things like this is always needed for a supernatural film to work. This film has these things along with the supernatural elements help the screenplay work
. If you’re looking for a film that leave frightened, then this film will do that to you. “The Haunting of Alice D” is supernatural that will keep you on edge to the end.
Review Rating: Four Stars.