Old-fashioned in the worst sense, Bardwell's ghost story is heavy on Freud, light on fear.
The Skeptic (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:12
Fresh:1
Rotten:11
Average Rating:3.2/10
Rated: Not Rated
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:May 1, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: Following the mysterious death of his aunt, power lawyer Bryan Becket (Tim Daly) moves into the elderly woman's purportedly haunted Victorian mansion. A die hard skeptic, he dismisses one eerie... Following the mysterious death of his aunt, power lawyer Bryan Becket (Tim Daly) moves into the elderly woman's purportedly haunted Victorian mansion. A die hard skeptic, he dismisses one eerie incident after another, until the haunting turns so personal and vicious, Becket's cool, unemotional veneer begins to unravel. Whispers in the night, things he sees in the darkness, clues of a horrible secret, turn our rationalist into a terrified and reluctant seeker. A seeker of a truth so unspeakable it could destroy him. And the mystery, always just out of reach down the darkened hall, is not fully revealed until the film's final moments. And even then, it leaves a tantalizing question. --© IFC Films [More]
Starring: Tim Daly, Tom Arnold, Zoe Saldana, Edward Herrmann
Starring: Tim Daly, Tom Arnold, Zoe Saldana, Edward Herrmann, Andrea Roth, Robert Prosky, Bruce Altman, LJ Foley
Director: Tennyson Bardwell
Director: Tennyson Bardwell
Screenwriter: Tennyson Bardwell
Producer: Mary-Beth Taylor, Tennyson Bardwell, Isen Robbins, Aimee Schoof
Composer: Brett Rosenberg
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Reviews for The Skeptic
You know you're in trouble when the most appealing element your film is Tom Arnold.
A film with good ideas and performances but weak, predictable, two-dimensional, frustrating dialogue.
While horror movies have become tedious fare, relying on recycled gotcha scare tactics, this brainteaser blend of the logical, psychological and psychic aims to keep viewers on their toes, as well as at the edge of their seats.
This old-fashioned psychological ghost story ... repeatedly compels supposedly mature and intelligent people to do preposterous things in order to keep the plot moving.
Tennyson Bardwell’s pretentious psycho-supernatural flick doesn’t even qualify as guilty-pleasure camp. It’s the sort of bad movie that will make you lose faith in the genre altogether.
Bardwell writes and directs carefully though without inspiration, leaving open the question of whether the house is really haunted.
I'll take a bunch of teenagers terrorized by chain-saw-wielding zombies any day.
Too tepid to ever get your heart racing and too simple to engage the mind.
A mechanical compendium of anti-skepticism clichés, right down to the obligatory post-realization upchuck.
The supernatural is the hobgoblin of the titular doubting Thomas in The Skeptic, though judging by writer-director Tennyson Bardwell's hapless mood shifts in this tepid horror-comedy, it seems consistency of tone deserves even less credibility.
Latest News for The Skeptic
May 03, 2009:
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