Haunting Sarah (2005)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The writer and college professor of mythology Erica (Kim Raver) and her pediatrician sister Heather (Kim Raver) are twin sisters and very connected since they were child. Erica's daughter Sarah (Niamh Wilson) and Heather's son David (Ryland Thiessen) are close as siblings. However, when David is hit by a car and dies in a silly accident, Sarah has premonitions and claims that she still talks and plays with her cousin. Meanwhile Erica finds that she is pregnant and need to rest and Heather is informed that she can not have a baby anymore. Erica travels to a cottage nearby a lake and Erica's maid Rosie (Alison Sealy-Smith) explains to Erica that the spirit of David does not realize that he abruptly died and is grabbed to Sarah waiting for the chance to reborn. But Erica does not believe in her words and sends Rosie back home, staying in the house with Sarah and Heather. When the spirit of David is aggressive with Sarah, Erica calls Rosie to help her."Haunting Sarah" has potential but unfortunately fails mostly in the end. The idea of the connection between twins and a spirit refusing to move on and wishes to reincarnate in a baby is intriguing and even spooky in some moments, but not well explored. Unfortunately the writer and the director never decide whether the movie is drama or horror and give a commercial unsatisfactory resolution to the plot. There are many flaws in the development of the characters, like for example, the confused relationship of Erica and Heather – is Heather an evil twin? Why did she build a spirit house? Why Erica follows her in the end? Edgar is very weak and disappointing, taking no attitude; it would be better off that Erica was divorced; and why David would transform in a fiend in his after death and hurt his beloved cousin? In the hands of Stephen King and Mary Lambert, this movie might be great. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Aparição" ("Apparition")

This is one of those movies that you happen to come across on some obscure channel, and as there's nothing else on, you decide to watch it. Unlike the reviews state, this isn't actually all bad. It does have some good points to it.The first half of this film is undoubtedly the best, but after that halfway line, it definitely begins to slip. Although it has the potential to be great, it descends and descends in enjoyment until you're left with a mess.The basic plot line is:Two twin sisters, both having children, throw a Halloween party. This is how the film starts, and it identifies the fact that the daughter of one of the sisters and the son of the other are really close. But then, the son (named David) gets run over accidentally when he drops his toy robot in the middle of the road and runs to retrieve it. However, the daughter says that he isn't dead. At first, the mother of the girl just thinks its shock, but then strange things begin happening, which suggest that maybe the boy's come back. The question that runs through this movie and makes up the plot line is: Why?It starts off well, but then it gets a little strange and weird towards the end. It's worth a viewing, no doubt, but there's nothing here to go crazy about.One can only help that a director will see this movie's potential, and make a remake of it that's much, MUCH better.

At first, I only watched this movie because Kim Raver was in it, but within the first 5 minutes I was hooked! I will definitely recommend this movie!! This is a great movie; the acting is great, the storyline line is interesting!! It's a great mix of scary and at times sweet! I was on the edge of my seat for some of the scenes-(that has rarely happened watching anything other than X-Files). I love the way Erica's dream sequences are filmed. The black and white colors add to the eeriness of the scenes- with only small amounts of color coming through! I have loved Kim Raver since watching her on 'Third Watch' and especially on '24', but she shows her incredible amount of talent with playing the 2 main roles. She is amazing in how she plays two completely different people! "good" Erica", and "evil" Heather. Two thumbs up for this movie! Big time!

I've waited two weeks to see this movie because it sounded really interesting. But now that I have seen it, I must say it could have been so much better. Kim Raver did a wonderful job playing the twin sisters, however she was the only conceivable character in the whole movie. When David is killed and he comes back to haunt Sarah, no one knows why he's there or exactly what he's saying or doing. We don't even see him until towards the end of the movie when Sarah is possessed by him. And another thing, why would David be a violent spirit if he was a good kid that just died tragically? Ususally violent spirits are those who were horrible on earth and are facing purgatory.The dream that Sarah's mom keeps having is never explained, the whole hatting process isn't shown to its full capacity, nor why David's spirit has to go into the newborn baby boy in order for Sarah to survive. There's a lot of fascinating aspects that are just left as cliff hangers for viewers to figure out and the movie just runs out of steam.Personally, this movie could've been done a lot better had the producers done some research into the matter or at least tried to tie loose ends. I wouldn't recommend this movie to people who are interested in the subject as it is just too broad and inconclusive.I give it a 4/10 just for Kim Raver's performance alone. She's the only actress that fit her role(s) perfectly.