[DVD Review] — "The Haunting of Whaley House" (2012)

For the past four months, Penny Abbott (played by Stephanie Greco) has been working as a tour guide at the Whaley House, where Anna and three other members of the Whaley family died during the 1800s. Penny is a skeptic and doesn't believe in the ghostly encounters that tourists claim to see there, even when one them gets hospitalized after claiming to have seen ghosts.  

 

Penny is close with Bethany Romero (played by Lynn Lowry), who has been running the museum for over thirty years. She gives Penny three rules of the Whaley House that you should never break. 

 

1. Don't call the ghosts out.  

2. Don't damage the house.  

3. Don't ever go inside the house at night. 

After Penny tells her boyfriend Jake and their three friends, Vanessa, Craig, and Giselle, about the incident with the tourist, they persuade Penny to go with them to the house that night to see if there are any "real" ghosts. She agrees and lets them inside the house, along with Ray, who has all the paranormal gadgets and gizmos, and the famous psychic, Keith Drummond. 

As they attempt to investigate, Vanessa flips out just like the tourist did, and an accident occurs. Anna Whaley's spirit doesn't like unwanted guests at night, and she'll claim all their souls one by one. 

The premise for "The Haunting of Whaley House" and the other recent film from The Asylum, 100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck, are based on real haunted houses. Due to budget restraints, they couldn't afford to film the movie at the real Whaley House (an official haunted house by the United States Commerce Department), so they found another creepy-looking house for the film. 

 

The plot is simple: a group of friends sneaks into a haunted house looking for ghosts. The premise works well for horror films, but one of the problems I had with it is that the characters are too old to be breaking into a house looking for ghosts. I can understand it if they were teenagers or conducting research for a college project. The acting in the movie is mediocre at best, except for Stephanie Greco and the small appearance by screen legend Lynn Lowry, who gave a good performance. Since I don't watch horror movies for acting, I can overlook this. 

 

Considering the low budget, the cinematography throughout the film was excellent, and I believe it was better than some theatrical films. I liked how they used old-fashioned scares with the occasional bloody scene, as well as Mindy Robinson's cameo. The Haunting of Whaley House offers nothing new to the horror genre, but it does offer a frightening atmosphere and quirky dialogue that should satisfy most horror fans. —★★★✰✰