Film of the Week: Haunter

Putting a different spin on the classic horror genre, instead of the story being told from the human’s perspective, instead Haunter showcases what life is like as a ghost, and what it is like being haunted by a ghost. That’s right, Haunter is about a ghost who is haunted a house whilst being haunted by a ghost. It has everything you’d expect from a classic horror film that deals with supernatural entities, but for the viewer, knowing seeing it from a different perspective, adds a whole new experience on the genre.

The Others dealt with this concept way back in 2001, but it was deliberately set up to have a twist ending, surprising the audience. Watching it through a second time knowing they’re ghosts doesn’t add much to the story accept you’re more aware of the visual clues the film feeds you throughout. Haunter immediately tells you they’re ghosts, and plays it from there. There is no twist ending, just a classic ghost story, told from a different perspective. Unlike The Others, Haunter can be watched many times over without losing anything important from the story.

There were a couple of decent jump scares, but I quickly surmised that this film wasn’t about how many times it can make me jump, but instead just telling a different story. First detailing a time loop whilst setting up the main mystery, and then exploring an original avenue on how ghosts interact with the living.

There are plenty of ideas which are explored enough to understand what’s going on, but you do have to watch it to understand. You can’t take your eyes off the screen to check your E-mails or make a coffee, you actually have to watch it all the way through to fully understand what’s going on, but even then it’s understandable if you were lost halfway through as it does jump around the timelines a lot. The film does its best to hold itself together. Whilst it’d be difficult to regain control over the story once lost, if you are invested throughout it isn’t necessarily one you’d get bored with as the amount of concepts explored whilst maintaining not-so-much-explored different perspective does draw you in straight from the start.

The performances of the cast are at times a little clunky as they flit between so many concepts, but overall they are strong. Abigail Breslin’s character, Lisa Johnson being the only one who’s aware she’s dead allows the mystery to develop gradually, by itself in some instances as we get some explanations of what happened off screen – thus proving it can be tricky to follow if you’re not truly invested in the film as it you may be searching back through the film in the hope of finding the scene they’re explaining only to discover there isn’t one visually detailing what the characters are saying.

Haunter is a good horror movie for those who likes something a little different, and whilst the story is told from another angle, the core basics of a horror movie is the same as any other.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)