This begins in very interesting fashion. An unusual premise, you really don't know how the story is going to pan out. Sadly, it doesn't really go anywhere as interesting as it promises, and when any developments do occur, they are very few and far between.
Some nice performances don't disguise the fact that most characters are severely under-developed, and the horror elements never really gain momentum. Things really don't go anywhere.
Despite being well directed and played, the main thing I took from 'A Haunting in Cawdor' was that it was being made up as it went along. My score is 4 out of 10.
A Haunting in Cawdor
2015
Action / Horror / Thriller
A Haunting in Cawdor
2015
Action / Horror / Thriller
Plot summary
Vivian Miller is serving out her jail sentence at a work release program in the Midwest. Her final 90 day sentence takes her to the Cawdor Barn Theatre, a dilapidated old structure run by Lawrence O'Neil, a troubled man raging at the mistakes of his past. After Vivian views an old VHS tape of what looks like a murder being recorded, she sets out to unravel this horrific crime before she becomes the next victim of the supernatural forces inhabiting the haunted structure.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Top cast
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Begins well ...
Juvie delinquents, ghosts, sordid pasts, oh my....
Overall, I found this movie dull, but it could have been saved with more in-depth characters. We really don't know much about the troubled young adults who come to the Barn Theatre for "rehab". We know what happened to Vivian, but we don't really know her.
In addition, it just was not scary. It really needed some more haunting moments.
Cary Elwes shines as the tortured soul trying to save a dying little theatre, while running from his own demons - his performance at the end is intense and moving.
A painfully slow-paced movie saved by good acting. Worth watching if you can be patient with it's slow pace.
Unfathomably slow and uneventful haunting in Cawdor...
Oh my, how this movie was an absolute snoozefest. Running at one hour and forty minutes, without anything, and I mean that literally, anything happening, it was just a losing uphill battle to get through to the end of "A Haunting in Cawdor".
However, I persevered and stuck with it to the end, clinging to the dwindling hope that the movie would get better towards the end. Alas, it did not! For a horror / thriller movie, then the only thing scary about "A Haunting in Cawdor" was the lack of anything worthwhile and the lack of anything to scare the audience. The story was slow-paced and it just felt like torture since nothing interesting happened at any time throughout the course of the movie.
The story, or what is supposed to resemble a story, is about a group of delinquents whom are sent to a remote location to participate in a theater group in order to reduce their sentences. But something is afoul in Cawdor.
Right, well there was potential for something just remotely adequate in a storyline here, but it was all butchered at the hands of the script writers, and not particularly salvaged in the hands of director Phil Wurtzel.
The only thing that worked in favor of the movie was the casting of Cary Elwes, Shelby Young and guy playing the helping hand / supervisor, but I don't know his name. These three people actually put on worthwhile acting performances and did what they could in terms to salvage the movie. Although there was very little even they could do.
For a horror movie released in 2015 then "A Haunting in Cawdor" was just a very, very disappointing and non-entertaining addition to the horror / thriller genre. Unless you are a fan of someone on the casting list, then do yourself a favor and stay well clear of "A Haunting in Cawdor", because it is just not worth it.