Altergeist (2014)

Excellent adaptation.

Crappy film

Awesome Movie

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The kings ransom winery is the most haunted site in America (just go with it). Theresa (Kristina Anapau) leads a group of eager paranormal investigators on a site filled with suicides and murders. She also believes she has conceived there a few months ago and her bf (Mark Hapka) questions if it is his. In addition to ghost sightings there has also been a ball of light. The action starts 20 minutes into the film and escalates. An explanation, one that I liked, is given in incoherent ramblings about an hour into the film. So pay attention to the crazy brother.The film uses the standard scare techniques. It has some hand held camera footage, but it is far from exclusive. There are no ground camera shots or people screaming in the dark with the camera jerking around. Given the explanation, the story didn't seem that tight. There were scenes in the beginning where little is happening....oh the EMF jumped to seven! Seven? Really? I found a cold spot.On the plus side they didn't use a Ouija board.Guide: F-bomb. Sex. No real nudity.

I picked this movie because it takes place in a haunted winery, and I love me some wine. There were four movies that it reminded me of; Blair Witch Project, April Fool's Day (favorite horror movie), The Ring, Tron, and Hellraiser thrown in for good measure. The blend actually worked.I was a bit worried at first with the shaky hand cam going on, but it was briefly at the beginning and too much throughout. This is where the Blair Witch Project came in. And while I really loved the Blair Witch because that was the first I had seen of that style of filming, I quickly became annoyed with it since it seemed to be in every horror movie afterwards.As for the April Fool's Day part, it was how they were all introducing themselves on camera at the beginning. Along with the gratuitous sexy body shot, and someone having a gun when they were not supposed to have one.The Ring was more so towards the end with the twitchy person coming out of the basement (well), and how they flickered… I think there might have even been a groan or two from them. Hellraiser because of the alternate dimensions and Tron for all the pretty grid/laser lights.I enjoyed the movie. The death scenes were not anything unique; a gun in the mouth, bludgeoning, drowning, etc… The ending had a fun little twist.There were a couple parts where I was like, Really! You are there to capture paranormal, but when you go off on your own to explore, you don't bring a camera or anything with you. But of course, it's more spooky when people are alone.The other thing was the music. I love horror movies where I am getting tense and realize it's in part because of the music. But the score on this one was a bit too much in your face at times, not subtle at all.All in all, it was a fun horror movie with some Sci-Fi thrown in.

What can one pontificate upon when one has viewed a film whose core basis has been done too many times to count. A group of ghost hunters enter a location which we are informed is the "MOST haunted" in the U.S. We are then informed they are the first ghost hunters afforded this opportunity. How was it determined it is the most haunted if no one has ever been there checking out that aspect of it ever before?All inexperienced ghost hunter can afford ritzy offices and an obviously limitless budget for expensive equipment!Group accesses property, spiritual shenanigans ensue and then we find out aliens are inextricably woven into the plot.Best scene in the movie: Pregnant woman in hallway about to assailed by ghost that is really just a black and white CGI composite when a bright light appears under the door. Door flies off hinges and a plasma ball enters the corridor and dis-incorporates the specter. Plasma erupts from the ball and we see Jeff Bridges and Tron appear and solidify. Boldly they step through the door to bravely face what lies beyond with their discs in hand!I never saw that coming at all! ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! President Warren G. Harding as the thin man was an incredible casting decision!I am now connecting my tongue to a 12 volt battery to punish myself for watching this!ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

New 2015 Horror / Thriller 'Altergeist" is pretty scary stuff. It starts off with a group of friends who get together to go to one of the most haunted places in the California...THE KINGS RANSOM WINERY. They go there to find out if its haunted...they find out more than they bargained for when they come across ghosts and several hauntings at the winery and turns into a survival fight...one of the guys takes a video camera with him to the winery for evidence, so I am like "Groan, not another found footage" but after 35-40 mins of warming up this little horror "Altergeist" really keeps you on the edge of your seat and scared to the end of the movie....what didn't work for me was that the main character (Woman) kept saying she was pregnant? where? she didn't look it, and towards the end before the car crash she said she was having convulsions and needed a hospital, then the car crashed and flipped, and she got out fine as anything and fought a guy and ran off....and she did plenty running after that....so that was not needed and didn't work for me...anyway good movie, on the edge of your seat thriller...worth a look!Also the music score was overdone. Every scene has overblaring music horror score. when the girl ran music overblaring, something spooky happened, music score over blaring..to be honest i thought it ruined the scenes sometimes with being overdone too much...still a good enjoyable movie overall