Horror Film Friday Returns with The Other Side of the Door

If you're new here, please know that my film reviews are crap and never to be taken seriously because I do not take notes and my memory is an unreliable thing but if you're okay with that, well, here's another!

click on pic to rent/buy it yourownself

Laurie from The Walking Dead stars as a suicidal, grieving mom. A terrible accident forced her to make a terrible choice that left her young son dead and she is not coping well. Still-sexy Jeremy Sisto plays the dad who seems to be coping with the death of their little boy by becoming a workaholic. He scours India looking for antiques that he resells for loads of money. At least I think that's what he does. He's seen bringing home an old thing or two and lives in a lovely large home so that's how I came to that conclusion. But the beautiful man hasn't a clue what Laurie is about to do.

Their nanny/maid/bad advice giver attempts to help Laurie find some closure by telling her about a place that will allow her to have one last conversation with her deceased son if she follows a ghoulish ritual but SHE MUST NOT OPEN THE DOOR that separates them.

Can you guess what she does when her baby says he wants to hug her?

Well, wouldn't you?! Even I have heart enough to allow her this misstep.

Once she's done with all this she returns home refreshed and hoping to move on and be a loving mother to her remaining child. I'm rooting for her to get better. What she has just gone through is every parents worst nightmare but, of course, something has beat her home.

Apparently none of these people learned a damn thing from King's Pet Sematary!

The beginning of this movie is moving, emotional and painful and you really feel for Laurie but everything that follows next is by the numbers horror and not a bit scary if you've seen too many horror flicks. It's a mishmash of The Grudge, Pet Sematary and The Monkey's Paw. I could deal if it had scared me or moved me in the second half but even the jump scares weren't able to move me.

Also, Sisto is tragically underused and unseen in this film and that is not me being dramatic. He has very little to do here besides give hugs and find pottery and it's such a waste. I can't even find him on the movie poster!

But trust me, he is in the movie. A little bit. See, I found proof:

Don't even ask me about that shirtless clay-mask wearing man in the background. I have no idea what those guys were doing in the film but there sure were a lot of them milling about ominously. I guess I'm giving this a three. The first half was decent and it tried its little heart out to scare me but I've just seen too many films to be excited by the things that happened in the latter half of the film.

Have you seen it and, more importantly, can you find Sisto in that poster?!