Stormhouse (2011) – Review

Where to watch Stormhouse

1 Star

Stormhouse is a Sphere meets The Exorcist low-budget science fiction horror flick. 11 months before the invasion of Iraq the British government has imprisoned a supernatural entity in an underground base called Stormhouse. After loosing contact with the spirit they bring in ghost whisperer Hayley Sands. But her involvement proves deadly as the entity escapes, wreaking havoc on the base. Who will make it out alive?

Let’s start with the good, set design. I liked the look of the underground base, you get the low-budget feeling here, but they did a great job of creating the illusion of a decent sized underground area. Although this does work against them at times, especially with the lighting in the entity’s prison. Other than the need to make it creepy, why wouldn’t the government put in some lighting? It’s difficult to see (especially when the spirit dims the two bulbs in the giant hanger) and makes little sense.

The bad is two fold. The writing is horrendous. There’s little to no plot and what story that does exist is boring. The government has caught this spirit to use for anti-terrorism? Really? Why give a reason at all for its use? To make matters worse the only test of this is to throw a known terrorist into the cell with the ghost. Are they going to go get all the terrorists and throw them in here with this spirit? If they are then they’ve already done the hard work in rounding up all the terrorists, what’s the point of throwing them in here?

Secondly the acting from Katherine Flynn as the main character Hayley is atrocious. To be fair she shouldn’t shoulder this issue alone, the blame also rests on director Dan Turner and writer Jason Arnopp. If her character isn’t a proven psychic and has a crap record for dealing with supernatural things, then why did the government bring her in as a specialist? Flynn plays Hayley as if she’s just escaped from a teen horror comedy. Her silliness is inappropriate and out of place in such a serious affair. I’m honestly surprised the line “Like OMG it’s a ghost!” never came out of her mouth.

Bottom line is Stormhouse was a great idea with poor execution. Skip this un-suspenseful and ridiculous ghost story, unless you’re really into low-budget horror flicks, and it’s hardly worth it for that.

Director: Dan Turner
Stars: Katherine Flynn, Grant Masters, Grahame Fox

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