‘The Other Side of the Door’ is a British-Indian supernatural drama from director Johannes Roberts. Maria and Michael live in Mumbai with their daughter Lucy. The family is grieving at the recent loss of their son Oliver who died in a road accident. Maria suffers terrible guilt as she was only able to save Lucy in the tragedy. Maria becomes increasingly distant from her family and after an attempt to end her own life her house maid Piki tells her about am ancient ritual that can be performed at a ruined temple to allow the dead to return for one final time.
The only rule that must never be broken which of course Maria does break is to never open the door. Maria returns to her family but something has come back with her. It starts off with invisible footsteps pattering about the house then plants start to die. Maria senses Oliver is back with them and is secretly happy. Soon however the haunting takes a sinister turn, a horrible figure covering its face is glimpsed in the shadows getting closer and closer and creepy thin men with the ash of the dead painted on their faces keep hanging around and pointing at her. Yikes.
I generally lap up any kind of spooky cobblers and with the offer of a cheap ticket (and a few good reviews) I thought I’d give it a go. ‘The Other Side of the Door’ has lots of potential but unfortunately it is depressingly generic. The performances are pretty mediocre and the script dull. I couldn’t buy into Maria’s grief or the couple’s relationship.
The exotic location makes a nice change to the usual USA set films but for all the effort that has gone into it you will barely remember a frame once you set a foot out of the cinema. The suspense in some scenes is quite good thanks to ‘Insidious’ regular Joseph Bishara’s score but rather than allowing the creep factor to edge in, every scare ends with a CGI face screeching at the audience. It isn’t scary and It is films like this that give the horror genre a bad name. I’d sit this next to recent release ‘The Forest’ in being a complete waste of time. If you’re looking for a good horror then go and see ‘The Witch’ or ‘Goodnight Mommy’. Both are excellent and on release now.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Depressingly generic haunted house thriller
