Grindstone Road (2008)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Grindstone Road: Directed by Melanie Orr and written by Paul GermannGrindstone Road is another movie where a couple after having suffered a tragedy moving from the great big city to a country home with a devastating secret. You've seen this movie before probably about a million different times. Fairuza Balk is the only reason this movie was even on my radar. I have put a moratorium on movies like this. I think I've seen enough movies like this to last me a very long time. This is a by the book ordinary film trying to be creepy and failing miserably in the process. We were able to guess every little thing that happened throughout this dull and generic mess. I'm not sure what time period this is designed to take place in but it features the usual staples of landline phones not working out in the country, going to the library to look at old newspapers rather than searching for these very same things online. This is what most of us would do now. This is why I think it must be in a different time period. I imagine the writer might be trying to bring back this type of story. I wish they hadn't and also wish they hadn't drug Fairuza Balk into this boring nonsense. The visual style of the movie is very flat. Nothing really pops out until the scenes in the afterlife but even then it's rudimentary. They try for those jump scares but fail immensely. Every type of scare it attempts flops horribly. The main thing about this story is the atmosphere and they can't even figure this one out. This movie is a dull, lazy and boring mess. Skip it.I give this movie a D.

Another cheap haunted house movie that comes to us from Canada. This is a cookie-cutter filmmaking experience with dark and gloomy cinematography and a cast who feel that their hearts aren't really in it. Fairuza Balk (THE CRAFT), unrecognisably aged, plays a grieving housewife whose son has been left in a coma after a car accident. She's heavily medicated and starts experiencing weird visions.You can guess the rest from here. It's another is-she-going-out-of-her-mind-or-isn't-she? type plot of the kind which has been done to death over and over again throughout the years. This low budget tale brings nothing new to the table. Balk is dull and the rest of the cast even duller. The scenes of her being menaced by a CGI-faced kid are laughable. The director throws in some clichéd jump scares to startle the viewer and the story finishes with the silliest twist ever. GRINDSTONE ROAD? A grind to watch, more like.

While the story is so-so and has all the unnecessary clichés, it played out pretty well and not mind-numbingly stupid like most Hollywood flicks. The acting is great (especially the performance of Fairuza Balk), actors behave like actual real people, you won't find any stupid blond chicks running around and screaming all the time. Cast is also great, actors really fit their roles. Directing and editing are well done. Soundtrack does it job, but can't say you will remember it.I guess it can't be "all time favorite" movie, but it's certainly recommended for rental or having in collection.

Grindstone Rd. starts as Hannah Sloan (Fairuza Balk) visits her comatose son Daniel (Felix Pennall) in hospital, Daniel has been in a coma for about a year after a car accident in which Hannah was driving & as a result she blames herself for his condition. Hannah drives out to her childhood town of Evansville where an large old house on Grindstone Road is for sale, it's rundown & needs attention but Hannah falls in love with it & together with her psychiatrist husband Graham (Greg Bryk) moves in. Standing in the middle of a wood the Sloan's nearest neighbour's are elderly old couple Linda (Joan Gregson) & Ted Jenkins (Walter Learning) who seem friendly enough, however they seem nervous when inside the Sloan's house & Hannah soon discovers that many years ago a young boy named Daniel who lived there went missing & that the man who was accused of killing him committed suicide in the basement. Soon Hannah starts to experience supernatural visions & happenings as the house appears haunted by Daniel who seems to be trying to communicate with Hannah, if only someone would believe her...This Canadian production was directed by Melanie Orr & is a pretty dull supernatural drama thriller with little to recommend it, films like Grindstone Rd. are a dime a dozen & this dreary effort adds nothing new to the clichés & routine formula. The script is strictly by the numbers, someone with emotional issues moves into a big old creepy house & starts to experience supernatural visions & happenings as a ghost who suffered in life tries to communicate with said new owner & right the wrongs that they suffered, Grindstone Rd. is totally predictable & I saw the so-called twist ending coming a mile off since I have seen so many of these lacklustre rip-offs before & know the deal. Grindstone Rd. starts off alright, it introduces our character's in a semi mysterious way with various flashbacks & quickly cut scenes that don't seem to go anywhere (Hannah walking into a hospital room & then suddenly cutting to another scene for instance) that I suppose was meant to create some suspense but once the script switches to the old house & the plot starts to be revealed things go downhill fast. Virtually nothing happens, sure Hannah hears voices, sees a few ghostly images & rather randomly decides to investigate the disappearance of Daniel but it plods along at a Snail's pace & becomes extremely boring. The character's are dull, the events of the film are dull, the basic mystery surrounding the supernatural occurrences is dull & I found the 90 minute running time pretty hard to get through. I suppose if you like ghost stories in particular then you may like Grindstone Rd. as it's competent if forgettable but I just found the whole thing a predictable bore with a really annoying happier than happy ending.The low body count doesn't help either, in fact there isn't a body count as no-one is killed except the evil doers who the ghost wants revenge on & even then it's more in a self defence scenario rather than pure hate driven revenge. There's zero gore, there's a bath scene with no nudity & the scares are pretty tame. There are one or two nice shots here but overall Grindstone Rd. is forgettable on all levels. To call Grindstone Rd. a horror film is stretching things to be honest, even though it has a ghost in it I'd say it's more of a psychological thriller. Quite why Hannah feels she can solve the decades old mystery of Daniel disappearing when all the cops at the time couldn't I don't know & why did the killers who murdered Daniel all those years ago move out of the house & literally a few hundred feet down the road?Filmed in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada this has decent enough production values is is reasonably well made although it's fairly basic & not much to look at visually. The acting is alright, Balk is quite good I suppose if I want to be positive.Grindstone Rd. is a really dull ghost story, it's predictable & at 90 minutes long it takes forever to go nowhere in particular. There are better ways to waste an hour & a half, also what's up with the DVD cover? Sure it's great with dripping blood & an eerie looking house in a misty setting but doesn't represent the film at all, it's like they say though 'never judge a book by it's cover'.