As in most bad horror flicks, intimations of unspeakable evil are supposed to distract us from the yawning gaps in story logic and character motivation.

| Jan 8, 2007

Even as the darkness closes in, there is never any real sense of dread. The slow-burning terror soon fizzles out, as does the damp squib of an ending.

| Jun 24, 2006

Back to horror school for you, Seor Balaguer.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 1, 2006

A plodding, portentous horror thriller in which a spooky child figures prominently and people speak in hushed tones about sinister doings.

| Sep 26, 2005

There's nothing very frightening about this shallow, stupid spookfest.

| Original Score: D | May 30, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jan 15, 2005

The kind of monstrous misfire that makes your mind ache and your teeth grind.

| Original Score: 0/5 | Jan 15, 2005

We know that the house is haunted, because the family who's just moved in has to deal with the lights always flickering out. They should have called the movie The Fuse Box Horror.

| Original Score: D | Jan 5, 2005

Plot elements exist for their own sake, with little or no explanation or relationship to each other, leaving the story such a muddle that it's hard to tell if the actors are doing their jobs.

| Original Score: C- | Dec 30, 2004

It's unoriginal, frequently incomprehensible and cheaply made, and moviegoers should avoid theaters that show this film just to eliminate the chance of walking in accidentally.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Dec 29, 2004

Moments hint at a metaphoric statement on child abuse, but the film proves mainly to be a commentary on poor electrical wiring.

| Dec 28, 2004

Although director Balaguero displays a talent for spooky visuals and creating an atmosphere of quietly simmering tension, his screenplay (co-written by Fernando de Felipe) is a compendium of barely connected scenes that ultimately lapse into incoherence.

Full Review | Dec 28, 2004

Though pic boasts decent perfs, potent atmospherics and eye-catching visuals, both psychology and plot are bargain-basement.

| Dec 27, 2004

Offers no inventive takes on its characters, shows no fearsome new way of presenting a haunted house and elicits not one palpitation from audiences paying for a few good jolts.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 27, 2004

Too mechanical to be either persuasive or scary.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 27, 2004

One can only imagine how much scarier some of Balaguer's images would be without the abrasive soundtrack.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 9, 2004