Haunter is hidden gem ghost story that many horror fans have missed.
The Story
A teenager is stuck in a time loop that is not quite the same each time. She must uncover the truth but her actions have consequences for herself and others.
The Review (Spoiler Free)
Haunter is a ghost story with a twist. In fact, many twists. It starts out as Groundhog Day where a teen seems to be stuck in a never ending loop. But the story evolves into something more.
If you are looking for scary ghost story such as Conjuring or Paranormal Activity, this movie isn’t it. Also there aren’t much special effects either. There are few creep scenes, but overall, the movie is completely drive by its unique story and twist.
This ghost story let you guess throughout the movie. Once you seems to figure out the story, all of sudden, there is a new twist. It’s a ghost story with a freshness to it.
The performances are all good, but Abigail Breslin really shines in this film. Abigail Breslin plays a teen in a race against time to not only save this new family but also her own, all while being tortured by the dark spirits watching her. Throughout the film, she shows the feelings of confusion, fear, and isolation so perfectly that we are immediately feeling for her character. The villain is excellently creepy. Stephen McHattie plays the creepy villain and he is excellent.
Haunter clearly mirrors certain well-known ghost flicks like The Others, and The Amityville Horror. Despite this, the script written Brian and Matthew King, as well as the direction of Vincenzo Natali delivers and engaging and heart-pounding film that hooks you all the way through. The film is also backed by a great setting and atmosphere. We are given a dark and gloomy setting that gives an idea of the kind of life that Lisa and her family have grown accustomed to. We are also given great cinematography that can really put us into the point of view of Lisa that assists in putting the viewer in her place.
This film wasn’t meant to bring out fear in the viewer, it was meant to engage the viewer into our main character, the setting, and the story. And it does all of this excellently.
Ending Explained (Spoiler Alert!)
First obvious twist is that Lisa is a ghost. she is living in same day before her birthday over and over again in endless loop. In fact, the whole family is a ghost. The family was living in this endless loop for god knows how long, and they don’t even know that they are already dead. They are appears be stuck in some kind of purgatory and unable to move on to afterlife. But somehow, Lisa woke up from the loop and started to investigate what was happening to the her and the family. She eventually finds out there is a mysterious evil spirit who is responsible for all this and controlling them
Later, we find out that her family were murdered in 1985. Soon she was able to makes conntact with Olivia, who is living in the same house in present time and seeking Lisa for help.
With the help of Olivia and the spirits of other girls who were murder victims in the past, Lisa is able to unravels the mystery of this evil spirit. She causes her family to come to terms with the knowledge that they are dead, and thus “awakened” they become able to assist her to stopping this evil spirit and help Olivia.
We learned that the evil spirit is once a serial killer named Edgar. He was born in this house and responsible for murdering many teens. After his death in 1983, the spirit continues to murder the family in the house by possessed the father of the family, including Lisa’s family. With help from all the victims of the house in the past, Lisa overcomes the evil spirit and rescues Olivia’s family from suffering the same fate. Thus breaking the cycle of endless loop. At the end, Lisa was able to reunite with her family and celebrate her birthday in afterlife.
In the Nutshell
Overall, Haunter is very original and entertaining ghost story with twist. I highly recommend. [5 out of 5 stars]
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Genre: Ghost
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What I don’t get is if he murders families by possessing the das why was there that book of missing and murdered girls not families? That didn’t make sense… I’m trying to find an explanation for this.
Because before he died he kidnapped and killed girls but after he died (the year before Lisa’s family moved in) the only way he could fulfil his need to murder was through possessing the dad of the family to kill their families.