You have to love the twist director Vincenzo Natali brings to the ghost movie sub-genre. While “Haunter” is by no means a terrifying film, it really works because it’s unique and often times original. It’s a very entertaining amalgam of “The Others” and “Amityville Horror” that centers on the ghosts that have been victimized by an evil entity lurking within a house and what happens when the victims of the specter finally decide to bring down the entity once and for all.
Abigail Breslin gives a powerful turn as young Lisa, a rebellious and rock loving young girl who dwell in her house with her parents and little brother, enduring the mid-eighties with her punk music and attitude. Before long, Lisa begins awakening to the same routine and same meals every day, and begins to suddenly realize she’s had the same conversations before. Lisa awakens every morning to the same announcement over her walkie talkie, has the same breakfast, and even discusses her upcoming birthday the next day. All the while her father is tinkering with the car in the garage that he’s intent on finishing, while the family is confined in doors by the mysterious fog outside.
The sudden realization of repetition gives Lisa a mission, as she begins to comprehend that the reality she is in, is based on nothing but habit. Her day goes nowhere, nothing in her environment changes, and the day never advances. As Lisa begins uncovering parts of her house she’s never seen before, suddenly her world begins to change in ways she never imagined. Director Natali stages much of the film with a gradual unraveling of the character’s space that not only acts as a profound look at the existence of ghosts that don’t realize they’re dead, but also ventures in to how the reality would change if the ghost became aware of its meaningless state and began breaking down the walls.
Before long, Lisa is faced with an equal begin that lurks within her house, and she is matched against an evil entity that’s been beside her all along. What’s worse is the being is much more powerful than she can comprehend, and it doesn’t want her to put the pieces together. What begins as merely a mission of self-discovery for Lisa, transforms in to a much larger sense of purpose. Natali posits Lisa herself as an unimportant average teen, who finds a sense of relevance once she’s been dropped in to a world as a ghost, and begins seeking out the reasoning for her environment, and why the entity with her won’t allow her to destroy the illusion.
Director Natali turns the confined environments in to an often atmospheric and spooky setting, where Lisa is forced to take a second look at her house that was never quite as familiar as she’d assumed. Director Natali is never afraid to induce surrealism, making Lisa’s battle with the entity immensely difficult, while the tone of the film itself becomes much darker and menacing with every passing minute. “Haunter” composes a respectable and intriguing mystery, and how the house with an evil entity can not only build a wicked legacy, but could also compile a long series of victims that may eventually decide to end its reign. “Haunter” is a unique and entertaining horror entry, one typical of director Vincenzo Natali’s penchant for thinking outside the box.