Then it happens.
Something so cheesy or implausible or goofy or whatever that instantly you are back to reality and the film has lost you. Because all you can think of is what the fuck just happened to screw up the movie.
The 1999 edition of The House on Haunted Hill is a great example of this for me. I was hooked right from the beginning. Great music and mood established in the first 5 minutes. The depiction of the ghosts was something that I'd never seen before. Great acting had you believing that the characters were actually in distress.
All is going well until the last 10 minutes of the movie. For some reason they decided to create this spectre of evil that was a cool idea but not too effectively depicted. The split image of evil is cool and I like the possibilities, but it's a bit of a reach to bring that kind of element into a film where it's not been the center of the film until the climax. Yes they mention that the house is alive and it's haunted, but the focus is a lot of times on the sub plots and interplay between the characters and trying to discover if the ghost of the good doctor is real. The real killer of the film for me though is some of the worst script writing ever put to film.
"I had nothing to do with it, I was adopted".
When I first saw this I was shocked at how bad the writing was and how clumsy it came across on the screen. It's just comical now because I still love the movie, but many times I will stop the film right before the climax and imagine what might have been.
Why not have a scene like they do at the end of the credits with a scene of the ghosts getting revenge on two of the party goers? If they would've scrapped the actual ending used and used the epilogue shot and tied the two together, it would've been far better in my opinion.
What films have made you feel this way and what would you have done to correct the error(s)?
PS-I do know the character and actor names, but I hedge my bets on not everybody knowing the film as well as I do, so I don't want to give too much away.
