Brendan Rudnicki
Cast
Michael Babcock - Ethan Morgan
Nancy Barber - Nancy
Blake Burdette - Jake
Brian Ramian - Eli
After finishing my last post about Tom Pix and Rob Zombie, I nearly forgot I had a film to review. That should be an indicator of my thoughts to come about 2020's Haunting of the Morgan Estate.
After finishing my last post about Tom Pix and Rob Zombie, I nearly forgot I had a film to review. That should be an indicator of my thoughts to come about 2020's Haunting of the Morgan Estate.
I found this movie while saving movies in my Amazon Prime movie que. The poster and short synopsis intrigued me enough to watch it.
Everything about this movie is wrong starting with the poster.
It depicts a looming dilapidated plantation style home with a dark turquoise backdrop. It's the ideal setting for an old fashioned ghost story. It's classic and appealing.
Nope! That's not what I was treated to.
Instead, I got a modern cookie-cutter estate that looks like any other contemporary home in any recently developed gated community.
Next, the title begins with the word "haunting." It goes without saying "haunting" implies ghosts are at play here.
While there is technically some kind of supernatural presence in the movie, it's really an afterthought.
Ethan Morgan (Michael Babcock) is running for a public office. In the middle of his campaign, he and his campaign manager/ secret girlfriend, Karen (Nancy Barber) head to his private estate to escape while she continues to work on his campaign.
As they spend time at the estate, they're accompanied by the estate's caretaker, Jake (Blake Burdette), who's an old family friend of Ethan's. Jake maintains a loyalty to Ethan and his family. He also doesn't seem to care much for Karen based on his demeanor and attitude.
Ethan often has to leave Karen alone while he tends to his problematic brother, whom he claims has relapsed into a drug problem.
Meanwhile, Karen takes it upon herself to snoop through Ethan's belongings. During her searches, she finds an antique camera and a dark room. So, she begins using the camera around the estate, and developing her own pictures.
Through very thin paranormal goings-on, she soon starts finding out Ethan's former wife may have met a serious fate. And Karen had better take heed.
The movie is painfully predictable. I feel that comment deserves a "duuhh" as a response.
The acting is poor...so very poor. In the final scene, when Jake starts to stand up to Ethan as he knows the truth about his former wife, the entire scenario plays out like someone is off camera holding up cue cards so Burdette can just get through the scene.
But there's one thing that's missing in this hour-long mess. It's a crucial element, too. A haunting! There is none. I mean, there's a ghost briefly here and there, but it's as though the writers threw some paranormal elements in there as an afterthought. I wouldn't be surprised if after the final shoot, someone remembered, "oh, yeah. It's 'the haunting of' the Morgan Estate. We forgot the damn haunts."
The whole experience was like sitting through a high school film project. However, With a high school film project, the audience would applaud for at least the effort put into the production.
There's supposedly a curse and an old house in this movie. Well, there is no "old" house as seen on the poster image. And the audience really has to put the pieces together to come to the conclusion, "maybe there's a curse. That would kind of make sense."
The thing is there's really no scary catastrophe that a curse would bring about in this movie. Normally when a curse leads to misfortune, it's clear an antagonist fell into that serious misfortune because of a curse mentioned earlier in the movie. It's normally a peril that only a curse could bring about. There is some misfortune that befalls Ethan, but it's through his own misdeeds. Actions have consequences. Only a superstitious individual would conclude in this particular circumstance that his misfortune was from a curse in the common understanding of the word. Everyone else might call it karma, or "the dude really f'd up."
When it comes to obscure movies, Haunting of the Morgan Estate really takes the taco. I couldn't even find stills from the movie to include here. Nor could I find a plot summery to help me fill in some holes. Hell, I couldn't even find a trailer to link to up above. Nothing! All I could find is a blurb on imdb.com.
Incidentally, rather than include a link to a trailer or scene, I included a link to a video called "the worst death scene." It has absolutely nothing to do with Haunting of the Morgan Estate. But trust me. You'll get more amusement regardless.
Movies about hauntings are the trend these days, which I find interesting as horror reflects the societal fears and unrest of their respective era.
Horror is a mirror of what's scaring a society. So, why are there so many ghost movies and TV programs nowadays?
There's a barrage of movie and T.V. titles that begin with "haunting of..." And just turn on the Travel Channel. The number of paranormal investigation shows, and series on paranormal encounters and eyewitnesses is overwhelming.
A Haunting in Connecticut (2009), A Haunting in Georgia (2002), A Haunting in Salem (2011), The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2019), The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008), The Haunting of Borley Rectory (2019), The Haunting of La Llorona (2019), The Haunting of Hill House (2019), The Haunting of Whaley House (2012), The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm (2011), The Haunting of Ellie Rose (2015). Everyone and everything, everywhere is haunted! I'll explore this trend in my next post.
Movies about haunted houses, and ghosts, are as old as horror itself.
Quite often, ghost stories contain a certain wisdom passed down through generations. That's what keeps some ghosts alive. Because of this most ghost stories demand a certain respect, even if just because our grandparent's gave them to us. It's on par with honoring our dead loved ones.
But this flick just doesn't care. It doesn't even try to care.
Nothing about the 68 minutes that is Haunting of the Morgan Estate is interesting, nor satisfying - not even for a ghost story. And for a ghost story, it's not even accidentally intriguing
It's painfully bland and has the nerve to call itself a "ghost story." Maybe it's better I couldn't find any production stills for this mess. There are other obscure, even campy horror movies that still deserve some attention. Those, at least, have a fun element to them most of the time. Haunting of the Morgan Estate doesn't even fall into that category. So, let me be the first to officially put a curse on this nonsense. I mean, someone needs to make it scary...somehow.
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