November 1, 2018

I've seen a lot of bad horror movies and Haunting of Cellblock 11 is trying real hard to be the worst. The acting is abhorrent and the characters are totally undeveloped. Everyone who isn't one of the main 4 people (who aren't great either) probably is not an actor and just someone they found in the town they were shooting in. The worst part is the terrible plot. The movie is an hour an twenty-five minutes including credits and it takes them almo… read the rest.

I've seen a lot of bad horror movies and Haunting of Cellblock 11 is trying real hard to be the worst. The acting is abhorrent and the characters are totally undeveloped. Everyone who isn't one of the main 4 people (who aren't great either) probably is not an actor and just someone they found in the town they were shooting in. The worst part is the terrible plot. The movie is an hour an twenty-five minutes including credits and it takes them almost half an hour to actually begin the investigation of the prison. They waste time setting up a backstory that is wholly irrelevant and highlights the studio boss who is the worst actress I have ever seen. Things don't get any better when we get to the prison, as the effects are awful and they can't even follow their own ghost rules. When they first get there, an intern gets hurt and rolls up his sleeve with no holes in it or blood on the outside to reveal a six inch minor cut on his arm. Firstly, it's not a cut bad enough to be concerned about, but they send him away to a hospital after already loosing the other intern who they sent to go get coffee or water or something and never returns or addressed again, so they are down a fourth of their crew. Secondly, they say he probably cut it on a camera box, as if a part of the box could have gotten up his long sleeve sweatshirt 3 inches and then cut him half a foot farther up his arm. There are many things I would consider mistakes that they would have easily noticed if they bothered to watch their own film. A character says they can't possibly write off spiking EMF meters because there is no electricity in the building. They set up like 12 cameras on the walls and numerous on tripods. Let's pretend that all of these and their multitude of computer equipment is powered by a generator or their van, they still are electronic and could interfere with the meter. This is stuff I would complain about in a paranormal/ghost "reality" show, but this is a studio film with a film budget and writers and special effects teams. I won't go any farther into the plot, but it's all terrible and I've seen better paranormal stuff on Ghost Adventures. They essentially have almost an hour to create what every one of those crappy ghost hunting shows would kill to have by making everything up, using CG and practical effects, and creating their own rules for how ghosts and the paranormal work. I love Ghost Hunters and all that crap even though I don't believe in ghosts, so I'm ready suspend all belief and logic to fully buy in, but they just cash out and throw some garbage out there. I recommend this to no one. It is a terrible movie and totally fails as a horror and it's not bad in a fun bad movie way, it's just lazy nonsense.

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