HOLLYWOOD—For a movie that totally attempts to sell itself by keeping its biggest secret from being divulged to the audience, “The Disappointments Room” fails to live up to the hype of the big mystery. The movie stars Kate Beckinsale as Dana, a mother who is grappling with the recent death of her baby daughter. In the midst of battling their grief, Dana’s husband David (Mel Raido) suggests moving from the fast-paced life to the country.
Yeah, that is a sign that the movie is following the classic haunted house tale; a family dealing with a personal crisis to escape all the ‘chaos’ unaware that they are opening an invitation to a world that they least expected. The house is grand in statue, but run-down to a degree that it needs a bit of tender loving and care, and cue the strange occurrences.
The relationship between Dana and David is as dry as it comes. Dana is a bit more emotional in grieving for her child, whereas David seems to be at a point where he wants his wife to just ‘get over it’ if that makes any sense whatsoever. Beckinsale who is no stranger to the horror genre with roles in flicks like “Vacancy,” “Underworld” and “Whiteout” delivers a strong performance.
However, the script which was crafted by D.J. Caruso (“Eagle Eye” and “Disturbia”) and Wentworth Miller from the FOX series “Prison Break” has most of the elements for a successful haunted house thrill-ride, but they don’t mesh completely. Lucas Till delivers a solid performance as Ben, a handyman who happens to catch the eye of Dana, but his character doesn’t drive the narrative much to salvage the movie.
We have the typical strange sounds at night, the shadowy figures that appear in Dana’s presence, but vanish when others are asked to corroborate what she has witnessed. So what should be a horror flick soon becomes a psychological thriller that raises the question of rather Dana is really seeing supernatural forces at work inside this haunted house that holds its share of secrets or is all this ‘imagery’ in her mind.
The biggest problem with “The Disappointments Room” is that there are these slow buildups to what the audience expects to be some stunning reveal or frightening moment that never reaches its potential. Yes, that climatic moment where Dana takes that key and enters the infamous ‘room’ has a weak reveal that might surprise some people, but I would argue I’ve seen much better.
Are we talking about “The Sixth Sense” level twist? No, we’re talking more like a twist that occurred in the thriller “The Happening.” If you enter the theater to see “The Disappointments Room,” you may wish you waited till this movie premiered on Cable TV.
