The Haunted Airman (2006)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Sadly Over-hyped

A Masterpiece!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Toby Jugg (Robert Pattinson) is a WWII bomber pilot hit in the back during a bombing run. He is paralyzed. His aunt Julia (Rachael Stirling) brings him to an isolated clinic run by Dr. Hal Burns (Julian Sands). It doesn't even have a telephone. He is haunted by disturbing visions. He is having an affair with Julia but she doesn't reply to his correspondences. He finds a dead body which the nurse Sister Sally Grant tells him is a suicide. He finally gets a letter from Julia but she writes that she hasn't gotten any letters from him yet. Burns admits that he has been keeping the letters.The first half holds the possibility of a creepy horror. At least, that's what I was hoping for. What it turns out to be is a lot less compelling. It has a little bit of a moody tone but it's not really a horror movie. It's a shorten TV movie at a little over 60 minutes. The ending is rather abrupt and unexplained. Pattinson is reasonable for what he's trying to do with the character. There just isn't much in this movie.

Let me start by saying I've made a mistake. I was looking for a Horror film, and was naive enough to think a title involving "haunted" would be Horror. I must have forgotten to double check.Second - I have no idea how to review this. I don't think I was able to understand the plot, the twist (was there one?) or even the main gist. I could only assume that the director, while trying to make us feel as confused about the border between reality and psychosis as the protagonist. Problem is - if we don't know what's real, we can't understand the film, now can we?I have not seen the Twilight trilogy, so I'm enough unbiased to be able to say that Pattinson's acting in this film wasn't as superb as other reviews would have you believe. It was good, yes, but not magnificent. The dialogues are confusing, bizarre and almost surreal. The one thing good about the script was the poetic touch in the letters Toby wrote Julia.So... all in all? I have no idea what happened in this film, why the events turned the way the did, and what caused it. A very unrewarding experience.

If you look up the word 'WTF' in the dictionary,there should be a picture of this movie. I saw it in 7 parts on youtube because I am a Robert Pattinson fan. It was mostly a bore but somehow I kept watching it.Rob smokes so much in this movie,it's to the point of hilarity.His performance was subtle but believable despite many dull droning speeches which I dare any actor to make exciting. Julian Sands was a nightmare. He would just pop out of nowhere & say cliché things in a cliché manner. That all being said there were a few barely redeemable moments in the film. Some scenes are actually pretty creepy if you watch them alone & in the middle of the night & you're drunk. The spider scene & the creepy little girl scene are pretty scary. There is a great sense of dread near the climax when you realize that Toby is screwed. I felt a great deal of sympathy for him when the paralyzed Toby starts packing his things in a pillow case & all he has is a toothbrush. The scene reminded me of a little boy running away. Pattinson looked so helpless & pitiful because you know he has no power over what's going to happen to him. The bizarre murder at the end is actually quite good in an artistic morose way. When Pattinson kisses the dead woman's lips (very intimately & noisily)it's morbid gold. I would say watch a few choice scenes if you're into creepy stuff or like Pattinson but don't torture yourself & watch the whole thing. I also find it hilarious that they are marketing the movie with a picture of Rob as a vampire. Genius. LOL. Maybe there is room for this movie as a cult classic for smokers & necrophiliacs.

Being a big Robert Pattinson fan (I admit it is due to the whole Twilight madness, he did not catch my eye in Harry Potter at all, wonder why? I probably am mostly in love with Edward in fact), I was curious to see this film...so I saw it had a lot of bad reviews, but as a fan you have also some responsibilities, so...I have to say, the only really bad things about this movie are the script and Julian Sands. I have not read the book, so no idea what the movie wanted to describe, but to me (spoiler alert) this movie just shows how Toby is slowly but surely getting mad, due to a guilty conscience from his awful war experiences, added to his fury and despair that he is now impotent(being paralysed from hip down or so). Did I get that right? The script is just awful, and I mean awful, leaves too many holes, scenes at the beginning are just like stop and go, action/cut..perhaps they want to show how Toby feels, the chaos and craziness?? If that was the point, good job, no one understands a thing anymore and people get bored. At the middle of the movie, things seem to flow a bit better. Rob plays really well his part, very mature and convincing,I was impressed! Julian Sands on the other hand is not convincing at all and seems not to know exactly if he should play the bad doctor or the good doctor...or is that intended too? for me he is really trying in his way to help Toby, then gets too involved with auntie and gets a bit carried away, but he does not seem like a Dr. Frankenstein to me. The shadows and spiders are all in Toby's mind. So yeah, all a bit confusing, I guess for this movie it all depends on what you want to see and understand from it, you need a bit of patience and to have an open mind. Still it is an interesting movie, a bit different from the whole Hollywood-industry-big-block-buster-same scripts-same ideas-stereotypes-movies. Watch it!