The Disappointments Room

So here we go again…another derivative suburban haunted house horror showcase featuring a harried heroine’s beleaguered state of mind from the wicked walls within her household’s creepy confines. The aptly entitled The Disappointments Room is the latest flaccid floorboard frightfest that tries to turn its predictable creaks into gloomy gold. Instead, The Disappointments Room is yet another redundant devious domicile drama that clumsily blends stagy supernatural suspense with victimized mental illness overtones.

Unlike the recent hair-raising, house haunting gem such as David F. Sandberg’s well-received horror home thriller Lights Out co-writer/director D.J. Caruso (“Eagle Eye”, “Disturbia”) never solidly establishes a workman-like psychology that gives his lop-sided eerie narrative an imaginative sense of insinuation and trauma or flowing raw nervousness. Instead, The Disappointments Room merely consists of tepid teasing that only a semi-riveting psychological-horror can provide.

It is a known fact that The Disappointments Room sat on shelves with no release date in sight in the wake of its film distributor’s (Relatively Media) financial woes back in 2015. Well, some may suggest that this toothless horror house sideshow should have continued to remain shelved since it brings absolutely no distinctive scares or challenging home-bound havoc to the proverbial terrorizing table.

Kate Beckinsale, last seen in the critically acclaimed Jane Austen-inspired Love & Friendship, is totally out of her element in this banal bump-in-the-night offering. Beckinsale plays Dana, a grieving wife and mother that decides to pack up from Brooklyn and move to the country in North Carolina to ease the emotional pain in the aftermath of her deceased baby daughter’s passing. Joining Dana is her husband David (Mel Raido) and young son Lucas (Duncan Joiner) hoping to escape their brand of psychological sadness as well. Thus, architect Dana and her family are headin...

Seriously, who fucking edited this?

When you pit a word like "Bad", "Weak" or in this case "Disappointment" in your film title, it's worth making sure that the movie doesn't actually suck, otherwise you're just asking to get roasted by the critics.

Final rating:★ - Of no value.

10/100

Just another 'family moves into a haunted house' movie. The room mentioned in the title refers to the practice of the rich and prominent, way back in the old days, creating a room in their homes to hide a disappointment ...like a deformed child. What we end up with is a film that should have been called the Disappointments Movie. It's never very clear if we're experiencing a real haunting or if the hauntings are the results of a delusion. Either way, they're dull and without a single scary moment in the entire film. -- DrNostromo.com