Director Kevin Greutert has extensive experience editing genre films, his biggest job to date the editing of the billion-dollar franchise Saw, where he even got the chance directing the formulaic entries 6 and 7. 4 years later, he released the haunted-house horror film Jessabelle. In this film, Sarah Snook does an average to mediocre job playing Jessabelle, a young woman that has to return to her old childhood house after a car accident leaves her paralyzed legs down. In dealing with a terrible father, she soon notices weird things in the house, and a terrible spirit tormenting her, while also finding hidden secrets from her mother's death. The film has two plotlines: a mystery about Jessabelle's mother's death, and a tormented spirit causing havoc on Jessabelle. The hook gripping us has to do with how these lines interconnect in the end. And, fair point, for the most part, Jessabelle holds together with its spooky scenes and the story, although simple, is entertaining; like the plotlines, there are two main problems. The first one is Sarah Snook and Jessabelle altogether. I don't know, man, but her acting was just not there for this film. She seems like she is trying hard to be sexy for no particular reason, always with that damn pout on her lips, it just feels so off. Sarah might have been trying something out of some shady directional guidance to look like a “naive young girl with childhood traumas”, but who knows. Then there is the character Jessabelle itself, a girl that lost a lot of stuff out of the blue, but she just shrugs it off on the premise that she has some videotapes of her late mother. This dismissal of harsh events on a woman's life is just something a man would play out, and badly for that matter. The second problem is the ending. Well, not what happens in the ending, but just that the movie just ends, no denouement, no “what happens after resolution”, nothing. You get the final reveal, a quick last scene happens, and the movie ends on a weird, almost satirical tone. Out of tune with the horror-driven atmosphere the film had up until this point. Past these detractors, Jessabelle is alright. It is chilling, like most haunted house features that play serious are, and the story is clever, but I guess Kevin Greutert was still too hooked up on Saw to try his own thing.

Nah, this isn't it! Blumhouse do better! Skeleton Key plot sadly makes way more sense than this.

Jessabelle is actually a really good classical horror movie, with ghosts and vudú. I actually liked the movie, it might frustrate a great load of people because Jessabelle didn't actually deserve to be killed, but they don't understand that that's actually how the carachters in the movie work, they're participants of this ritual and they don't think they're doing anything wrong, the carachter Preston confirms that when he's driving with Jessie to the house. The mom carachter thinks what she did is right disregarding anyone's opinion, the ending may piss off many but at the end it's a good movie and it keeps you hooked till the end.

killer movie! i felt like it should've been longer the vhs tape past to present was just awesome, i was drawn in the whole movie would watch again for sure, 7.5/10

Nuevamente, Blumhouse presenta otra historia de fantasmas que si bien no es del todo original, logra captar algo de atención. En el caso de Jessabelle, tenemos una historia de fantasmas simple y el argumento de la película tiene un gran parecido con The Skeleton Key. Nuestra querida protagonista Jessabelle es alguien que inocentemente regresa a la casa de sus padres sin saber que le espera algo relacionado con la verdad sobre su nombre. La protagonista es un personaje con la que se puede empatizar muy fácilmente de principio a fin. La película incluso viene con un giro argumental bastante sorprendente que le da una cierta renovación a esta historia sobre espíritus y vudú. El guion es bastante bueno y mantiene la atención del espectador hasta descubrir porque sucede al final. Jessabelle es al final una muy buena película y otro de los proyectos interesantes que Blumhouse ha producido. Mi calificación final para esta película es un 9/10.

Oh no! I'm so so scared! The same predictable ending of every voodoo movie ever!? I'll never be the same again!

Pitiful, disorienting, ignorant and boring - I'd save your time for something better like jamming scissors up your nose or crawling ontop of broken glass. This movie was a massive disappointment - the concept was great but the execution was awful in every way. We're forced to care about this boring girl who seems apathetic most of the time and believe that she's stuck in a wheelchair, which normally I wouldn't care about except even the director didn't want us to notice the wheelchair with the constant extremely close zoom ins on every person on screen - the tops of peoples heads didnt exist in most of the shots; that's how close up it is. The jiggling of the camera didn't do it's job during action sequences, making me notice how fake it is while wanting to throw up. The characters make nonstop dumb and unrelateable decisions and as we trudge along towards the end, all of a sudden I'm getting a racist "plot-twist" summary. Voodoo shouldn't be used if you don't understand it and are only using it as "ooOoo spooky evil magic!!" It's ignorant and played out at this rate. Also plot twists aren't supposed to be a "did you believe that? Haha GOTCHA" but if you wanted to shock the audience, you actually need to lay out the groundwork. Pulling a game of thrones "nah dany was evil the entire time see?" and latching onto random strings to prove this insanity is nonsensical. You know what? It's like paranormal activity. BORING and just weirdly disrespectful. Thanks for killing some brain cells

This movie doesn't seem to be about the jump scares so much as the building tension. I kinda figured out the story by halfway through, so they might have been a little more discrete with their breadcrums. The main set is just perfect, flashbacks provide contrast, side characters confuse the watcher only for a little while before the secret is revealed. I'd watch it again.

Film's idea is great i liked it

After a horrific car crash Jessie seems to have lost everything and is forced to move in with her distant father. Soon strange occurrences begin to emerge and Jessie experiences nightmares along with seeing apparitions around her. She soon discovers that this apparition has held a grudge on her since the day she was born and it is still angry. Jessabelle is one of those horror movies that you just can't help but love! There is unexpected thrills and scares galore. The story was really well thought out and it's difficult not to fall in love with the characters. A movie I've been dying to watch for years! I recommend this to any horror fan especially of the supernatural department.

It was pretty good well to me, but some parts were so confusing I had to watch it over and over again to understand somethings. Otherwise I found it pretty good to pass time with

Eh, its not great. Worth watching because its free on YouTube if you have nothing better to do. It's still somewhat entertaining.

Not entirely horrible and moderately entertaining, Jessabelle is essentially nothing more than a stripped down simplified take on The Skeleton Key.

It's a decent enough, but rather forgettable possession/demon flick. Snook is pretty great in it, and the creature design is kinda cool, but I'll be damned if I could say there's anything standout I really even remember...

Empty watch, won't watch again, and can't recommend. I basically gave this a shot because Sarah Snook looked cute and it was a horror movie I hadn't heard about. I had really expected it to get a lot better from there. Sadly it doesn't. The opening sequence is an odd choice, but it's just a mechanic to get her in a wheelchair, which I really wanted to love, but it is used a cheap way to debilitate her and add to a fear of helplessness when it sort of does the opposite. As someone who has had to use a wheelchair before, it separates the character from most of the audience because they don't have that frame of reference: it's alienating usually. The movie has to be really good and draw the audience to relate to the character before they can overlook things that seem foreign to them. There are some really good sequences with the ghost, and it actually reminded me of "Evil Dead" quite a bit, but it did sort of devolve into what looks like two girls mud wrestling, so I'm hoping that wasn't a factor. The story is all jumbled and clunky in how it's told so it ruins all the parts that would make it interesting, but even with a good mystery / twist, I think the movie would have been average at best, and instead it's a waste of time. There are so many better movies out there to watch.

This kind of "Black People Scary Non-Christian Religion Evil" lazy writing was probably scary in the 70's when it was still cool to be afraid of black people. The SCARIEST part of this movie is how a woman paralyzed from the waist down lost her father and NO ONE IN THE COMMUNITY EVEN CAME TO VISIT and ask if she needed help. Had she been involved in the (obviously thriving) Hattian church at least she'd have some support. Dang.

la peor que eh visto

A decent production wasted on a shit script with a shit director

Home alone fright fest of similar vulnerability but without sense though the stretch to satisfy is rather questionable regarding the twisted route. (B-)

As an avid horror film enthusiast, this film was a dark family tale with a lot to offer for originality. Loved the ritualism and it actually made me jump!