SnoopyStyle
Marley Charles (Niamh Wilson) is orphaned after her parents are killed in a car crash in which she survived. A year later, her uncle Mason (Jonathan Watton) recruits psychologist Dr. Faith Hardy (Mia Kirshner) to treat the girl. Items are being moved and everybody suspects that the girl is acting out. Faith is avoiding her mother and reluctantly takes the case. It reminds her of her patient Megan Belleflower (Charlotte Arnold) whose disappearance drove her out of private practice. Mrs. Carr (Rosemary Dunsmore) is the rigid long-time caretaker.This mystery horror lacks the needed atmosphere or the style to elevate the tension. The little girl is good. Otherwise, it's mostly blah. It should be brooding and moody and a little scary. Instead, it's lightweight and a bit cheap. Simply by doing the car crashes at night would increase the horror tension vastly. The plot does have a nice loop which finishes off in the end. This is a Lifetime TV ghost story which struggles to keep any intensity.
slayrrr666
"They Come Back" is a certainly fine Lifetime-style ghost film.**SPOILERS**Following a traumatic experience, Mason Charles, (Jonathan Watton) asks psychologist Faith Hardy, (Mia Kirschner) to come watch over his niece Marley Charles, (Niamh Wilson) who has been the subject of a strange phenomena she is quite familiar with. Meeting with her, she agrees to take her on as a patient, where she's revealed to be blamed for a series of supernatural incidents that plague her. As she spends more time together with her, the more she comes to believe that the special incidents are caused by invisible specters that are causing all the accidents and weird events, making the others around her a little skeptical. When they finally believes that she's seeing ghosts, they race to help her understand what she's telling them in order to stop her from seeing them.The Good News: There was some good stuff to this one. One of the main points is the fact that there's some pretty decent haunting-action going on, as the different ghost-heads that keep popping up in different places, such as the cemetery gravestones and in the mirrors around the house, but to the more traditional type of haunting actions is where it really shines. The first house walk-through, where the creepy noise in-the-distance leads to a full-on investigating of the house by flashlight into the living room where we get a marvelous visual of the place as it looks like the ceiling is underwater at a viewing exhibit with the wavy lines appearing and finally to the ghost appearing with a verbal warning leaves the entire scene feeling quite enjoyable and original. A second big haunting scene is done with the girl in the classroom, as the taunting of the student next to her leads into the verbal warning from her and then the teacher's warning, followed by more taunting and finally into the surreal shot of the glass cage in the back of the room utterly exploding and breaking into dozens of pieces, with no one around to claim responsibility. It's a pretty impressive scene, as well as the film's biggest scare when the psychologist is in the bathtub, including a tease in the disrobing before she enters and the faucet turning off on its own, but then when it appears as if she has been pulled underwater and the surface acting as a glass barrier to prevent escape is all handled extremely well and the entire scene being surrounded by the off-kilter lighting makes it look all the better. This one also manages to work in a couple nice build-up scenes that are used to effectively make the whole thing a lot more suspenseful, including the ghostly heads but also with the card-guessing game they indulge in as well as the new-puppy's reactions and behavior top her as well. Most telling, though, is the different tactics done with the drawings, the initially ones being quite innocent even if a little ominous-looking before it goes full-on in to the dark and disturbing, making full-use of the escalating events to make it even creepier. The last plus in here is the fact that this one has a couple of impressively-done car accident crashes, being a lot more violent in tone than would be expected in such a film and coming off quite nicely in the intended nature. These here are the film's pluses.The Bad News: This one here didn't have a whole lot of flaws, but they are ones to be expected. The main issue, like most of these Lifetime films, is that the film is so filled with dramatic moments for its' female lead that it manages to suck away a lot of the tension and suspense the events have been building up which would be exploited in more traditional horror films. From the meetings of the therapist and her assistant where they discuss different psychotherapy techniques and the insane amount of time they spend before the actual treatment sessions managing to become friends and the budding relationship between the two, this one is filled with such techniques that it's really hard to get any sort of fear present during the supposed-supernatural hauntings. Another familiar tactic in here is the film's insistence on using non-threatening events as the basis for its' supernatural goings-on, here played out with a bit on a moving tape-recorder no one touched during the session, despite it only being shown in its final place and not in the process of being moved, the card-game where she guesses everything with no hint or clue beforehand, and a series of scenes where she vocally expresses what's happened but there's no physical evidence, and it feels like a cheat since we see nothing of what' s going on. The hypnotherapy session they engage in also has a few problems, mainly the fact that it's nearly an hour into the film and we're just finding out the root cause of everything, from the hauntings to the interactions with the girl and much more, and it reveals a gaping plot-hole that is pretty hard to ignore, in that the ghost targeted the girl to be able to have her solve her death, yet there was no way they were in contact before, after the hauntings started, so it's pretty confusing what was supposed to happen here. The last flaw is the typically sweet ending, which doesn't really mean much of anything and really just reeks of the style of film. Otherwise, these here are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: A rather typical Lifetime style film, filled with all sorts of the usual tendencies associated with those films that it's quite an easy film to view. Recommended solely to fans of these films or fans of the cast, while hardcore horror fans who demand more will be sorely disappointed.Rated UR/PG-13: Mild Violence and Language
TheAnimalMother
As far as supernatural T.V. movies go, this is actually quite good. They Come Back smartly keeps itself from going too over board with forced drama, as many made for television films of this nature do. Rather, the film relies mostly on fine direction and fairly down to earth characters and dialogue. The director definitely deserves some praise as this could have easily been a terrible film without the right touches of subtlety and grace to carry it's other worldly plot. Here the director was wise enough to have focused on the actors to create a true dramatic and suspenseful feel through the development of the characters and relationships, rather than leaning mostly toward special effects and cheap gimmicks like many modern day supernatural films do. In a way, this film does have an older style of presentation and yes, it still works. Other than the fine direction of John Bradshaw, it is the standout performances of Mia Kirshner and the young Niamh Wilson that really make this film worth watching. Although Mia has sustained pretty regular work since she was a 14 year old actress in 1989, I really wonder why she hasn't become a regular in mainstream Hollywood. Perhaps it is partly her own choice, I'm not sure. Nonetheless, it doesn't take much to realize that the beautiful Mia has something over most beautiful Hollywood actresses, and that is the fact that she really can act. In my view, any chance to watch Mia Kirshner perform her craft is time well spent. Lesser known or not, Mia obviously has a great feel for what she does, and is one of the true great actresses of her generation. Niamh Wilson displays evidence here that she may also have a bright future in the acting field. Niamh gives a very believable performance in what would seemingly be a somewhat difficult part for a child actress. I feel it is always a compliment to the director when a film boasts fine performances throughout, and that really is the case here even apart from Wilson and Kirshner. It is very evident that he works well with his actors, and he and the editor both have a fine eye for their work.Certainly a worthy watch.6.5/10
