Stephen Abell
Since this is a television movie the subject matter has been toned down. This would have made a good average budget DVD release movie and could have handled the matter a little more accordingly.That said, the director, Jean-Claude Lord (who directed Visiting Hours (1982) and Second Chances (2010) - reviewed in my blogs), does an amiable job with the story by John Benjamin Martin and Donald David Martin.This is a ghost story, but due to lack of horror elements and the amount of time it takes to get to the ghostly action, it is more of a drama. This has so much of a TV movie feel to it. The characters are stereotypical; you can see the twists coming; and the characters relationships are pretty standard and have been done a thousand times before. Nevertheless, the actors and the director do make the film watchable... and at times, enjoyable.Lindsey Price who plays the lead role of Nikki Wickersham gives a passable rendition of a troubled woman who loses her husband, though it's not played as a tear-jerker. Nikki's friend, Margie Mancuso (played by Sadie LeBlanc) and her handyman boyfriend (Niall Matter) are pretty realistic and believable, to a point - this is a TV Movie, after all.It's the lack of direction the story takes which is a stalling point for the film. It sits uncomfortably between, drama, thriller, mystery, and horror. This makes it a bland affair, had the writers or the director chosen just one path to take this could have been better. It needed to be spookier with more tension. The mysterious elements could have been heightened and extended upon. Because the cause of the haunting is hateful, terrible, and unpleasant it was required to be much darker than portrayed here.If there's nothing on the telly and hell has frozen over, then you could do worse than watch this film.
Leofwine_draca
SECRETS OF THE SUMMER HOUSE is another time-wasting television movie with subtle supernatural elements. Yet again it sees a couple visiting an ancestral home in the boondocks only to discover that the building's sinister history means that the past is very much alive.The problems with this film are too numerous to mention: the predictability of the thing works against it, as does the insipid acting and the weak writing. The dialogue is noticeably cringeworthy, particularly in the way the information is continuously spoonfed to the viewer who is apparently unable to think for him or herself. The best thing about it is Lindsay Price, whose chirpy demeanour adds the only fun and life this film has.
slayrrr666
"Secrets of the Summer House" is a rather enjoyable Lifetime haunted house effort.**SPOILERS**Hosting a new exhibit, artist Nikki Wickersham, (Lindsay Price) and her husband George Wickersham, (David Jones) are called out to Maine to sort through his father's belongings after he dies. Arriving there to find they've inherited an island with a large mansion on it, they quickly learn of an old story surrounding the house about it being haunted through the years, yet friends Margie Mancuso, (Sadie LeBlanc) and Peter Hughes, (Niall Matter) convince them to stay there anyway. While working on a special project, a series of strange events around the house has them convinced that the house has indeed a spirit roused by a secret from the past, and they work to rid it from their house before it strikes them as well.The Good News: There was some decent stuff in here that made it quite enjoyable at times. One of the better elements was that it managed to include a rather sizable amount of hauntings that were far more involved than expected, rather than just flashing a ghost for a second or so. The first night on the island, during the raging thunderstorm where the lights go out, the shutters get blown open and the trouble outside in starting a generator is interrupted by a falling shingle from the window above, dropped almost supernaturally. It's quite an impressive sequence, almost as good as a later scene where one is standing on a ladder to fix the shingle, only for a ghostly presence to appear in that window and cause it to fall, seriously injuring them in the process before disappearing in a flash before they can be spotted. Another strong suspense scene is the longest and most enjoyable of the film, where during a raging thunderstorm outside and the lights going out, a brief reprise in the kitchen makes for a perfect target for supernaturally-hurled furniture and dishes at her, along with the rattling glasses and flying boards, leading to a strong chase around the house trying to find shelter before finding all the doors locked and the only escape coming from a brilliantly-executed escape, all leading into a great scene. The best parts of the film, though, are the several different scenes within the small closet within the house, which are insanely creepy and downright enjoyable, coming across as the best stuff here by a wide margin. The simple set-up the first time around, the rapidly closing door and the shuffling voices wailing all around her and becoming more disorienting as time goes on inside, creates an incredibly intense experience and makes for a great scene. The later one, where the body is found buried beneath the floorboards and the eventual placating of the myth, is punctuated by a strong opening with the doorways opening supernaturally into the desired areas, the rattling of the house and the destruction of the different pieces of furniture around the area, coupled by the strong presence of the skeletal remains and the remnants of the back-story coming into play wonderfully make for a superb scene that is quite enjoyable. The last part that works here is the film's rather strong back-story, which is really unique and quite enjoyable. From the family legend that is the perfect set-up for a ghostly mystery to be unraveled from, the revelations coming from the look-ins on the family members and finally the contents of the sealed lock-box, which contain the most frightening pieces of the puzzle, this is a lot stronger than would be expected in such a simple film and give an effectively spooky backdrop for the events to unfold. These here are the film's good parts.The Bad News: This one didn't have a whole lot of bad points, and it easily could be said to have only one flaw. The simple fact of the matter is that the film doesn't have any real sense of suspense or fear coming from anything since it has such a long amount of time in between all the different haunting scenes so that it's virtually impossible most of the time to believe it's a horror film. From their constant dealings with the renovation aspect of the house to the bad blood between the loner there and their feelings toward the area, it's got a lot of time that is specifically away from being a horror film, and that's something which can be problematic for some out there. By keeping the attention away from the horror and making full use of a lot of different elements isn't necessarily part of what makes for an enjoyable film. The fact that these are part of the middle section of the film, when it's supposed to be building up after the discovery of the freak accidents there, drops them to focus on drama portions of the plot doesn't allow for very smooth pacing, as it gets into a miniature rhythmic start, only to stop for significant amounts of time to focus on other parts, and it's a real drain for that to occur. That also takes the power away from the ghostly encounters, which are quite a let-down after such a strong start. These here are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: A lot better than expected, and certainly one of the better Lifetime horror films around, this one turned up with a lot of good parts and a few minor flaws. Definitely recommended to fans of the others Lifetime horror efforts, as well haunted-house fans or of the cast, while those who aren't should heed caution.Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and a clothed, minor sex scene
