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her performance has done little to convince me of her acting skills. I found her performance to be bland, boring and flat. There is no chemistry between her and George, or really any of her children, although she spends a great deal of time hugging them. As far as I'm concerned, any reasonably attractive actress could have played this role just as well, if not better. Sorry, Melissa, but I'm not very impressed. The children, played by Jesse James, Jimmy Bennett and Chloe Moretz, do an adequate job as Kathy's children. The older son (James) is struggling to come to terms with the fact that his father is dead and he now has a step-father, which adds a bit of depth to his character. However, he isn't particularly likeable, despite the predicament in which he finds himself, and so he didn't really strike much of a chord with me. The other two are cute to look at, but bring little else to the film.

The story is an intriguing one. We learn from flashbacks at the beginning of the film about the murders, committed for no obvious reason by a family member. However, through Kathy's research, we also find out that the house is on the site of a burial ground. All this, along with the strange happenings that take place after the Lutzes move in, should ensure that this film is a compelling one. Sadly, it doesn't quite work this way. Perhaps because the story is based on something that apparently really happened, there is much that is left unexplained, and whereas some may argue that this is what makes it scary, I was left with a lot of questions. I was also disappointed with the pacing of the film. It is quite short at just 90 minutes, but seemed to drag on much longer than that for me, and I was quite relieved when it was all over.

Another factor that didn't overly impress me was the special effects. Considering that the film was made in 2005, I thought that they were rather weak. We get to see ghosts, particularly the ghost of a little girl that was murdered in the house, yet she always looks fake, and I didn't find her in the slightest bit frightening. Other effects, such as blood running down the walls and items of furniture moving about, felt basic and not very scary. However, there were a couple of things that did stand out. One was the way that the house was filmed, from below looking up, which made the windows on the upper floors look like eyes - this was very effectively done and is probably what stands out most of all for me. The other was George killing the family

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