Haunted 4 : Demons
I’ve got to admit that at this point, I’m just not all that excited going into Haunted 4 A quick check up on IMDb shows that this and part five were both released in the same year, which leads me to expect something similar to two and three… A long back to back shoot with a lot of ghost hunter troops and meandering, but not a lot in the way of actual scares. I hope I’m wrong.
I’m not.
The one thing that Stephen Smith has going for him is his perpetual leading man Jon Paul Gates. Gates is extremely good at what he does. He creates characters that you really like spending time with. I’ve made this comparison before, but much like Phantasm’s late series sequels really started becoming family reunions, time to spend with Reggie and Angus and Don and Bill and Mike… Smith and Gates achieve that same effect here. It’s easy to just kind of sink into these films as an excuse to hang out with those guys… And that’s probably the best way to approach them. That and 1.5x speed, especially because this one’s a whopping two hours and twelve minutes!
I know I praise those part two credits, but really, we’re getting the exact same credits now for the third time in a row. It’s weird. We’ve also got the same TV host/announcer, but this time we’re at the house for our haunted location. The owner says there’s opening and closing down, doors slamming, things turning on and off, and fire spontaneously appearing in the barbecue pit.
We also have the same American ghost hunter with John Paul Gates. Gates finds a ghost of a child upstairs, in a sort of vortex going on up there. We’re throwing a tea leaf reading into this mix this time too.
Evp manages to retrieve the word “devil” upstairs, so it’s time for them to start asking it questions. The ghost makes itself known with some loud noise, knocking the cell phone to dead black. The ghost is trying to find her sister, and keeps going from person to person trying to communicate… At least that’s what Gates tells us. It’s still all talk – nothing is ever shown. In this upstairs, after trying to communicate with that girl, we are rewarded with more action than usual in exchange for an extraordinary long section of film. Knocks and
people experiencing touches and computer read outs and such.
Makeshift Ouija board Downstairs and more hunting electronics upstairs. We’re an hour and 15 minutes into it, but it feels longer. Outside, Gates sees an image of the girl standing in the window, pointing down. He describes a vision she shares with him – a vision of her sister being physically abused, beaten and hurt. There’s also an army man here, Sergeant Major Mark Stevenson… He said he’s the abusive father.
These are really the best parts; where Gates is hearing from the spirits and basically telling us the backstory. Much of the rest of the ghost hunting bits are people talking with each other and a lot of faces staring at farms or other equipment.
Finally, we hit the last seven minutes or so where they’re coming to an end and getting ready to cleanse the house, burning sage and praying blessings over the house. Suddenly, the barbecue pit burst in the flame, just as Was described at the beginning of the film. And yet, gates can feel the bad energy and bad spirits leaving the house. Little girl is feeling better he says.
And that’s it. As far as these Haunted movies go, that may be the single most anticlimactic ending so far. I almost feel like what I’m watching is a master class on how to build one of these ghost hunter shows, and I sort of fictionalized attempt to show what the most ideal outcome would be. If you didn’t know this was fiction, this one in particular could very easily be mistaken for the real thing. Not sure I like that. With so many genuine ghost hunter shows all over television,
I’m not sure what the point is to watching a staged ghost hunters show… Well, one where they admit it staged anyhow!
Argo City Comics 