The Horror Show
The Disappointments Room
by D.J. Caruso
The Disappointments Room... yes, there’s plenty of room for disappointment while watching it. I know it’s a rather obvious and easy comment to make, but the title basically speaks for itself and it’s hard to ignore.
A blond Kate Beckinsale stars in D.J. Caruso’s cliché-ridden thriller that couldn’t possibly be more unoriginal - and you’ll see why. Him and scriptwriter Wentworth Miller created a horror offering that unfortunately brings together all those stereotypical horror movie hallmarks, which we can sincerely live without.
A troubled family carrying tremendous grief, a distressed pill-popping mother and a creepy old country mansion holding dark secrets synthesize the setting in Caruso’s The Disappointments Room - and now you see why it couldn’t be more unoriginal.
The hackneyed story follows Dana, a woman still recovering from her baby daughter’s death, and her husband who decide to move into a deserted house in the country with their young son. They hope the change of scenery will help them cope with their grief and make a fresh start, but things go terribly wrong when Dana stops taking her medication and starts experiencing mysterious phenomena.
Like Dana, we start questioning the truth behind these eerie happenings. Is it just her imagination or is something sinister haunting the old mansion? Cinematographer Rogier Stoffers has every good intention to scare us by creating a dour ambience and utilizing the house’s darkest corners, however, the movie fails to scare us on every other level.
Despite Beckinsale’s decent performance, The Disappointments Room is devoid of any soul and leads to a rather bland climax. Most damagingly of all, the movie never really generates any genuine suspense, even though the premise and general idea behind it encourage a high level of agony.
The haunted-house narrative suffers from its own flaws and unfortunately, as events unfold, everything leads to a senseless finale. The Disappointments Room does disappoint even the most mainstream audiences, dooming it to a very limited shelf-life. Watch with caution, as you’ve been warned.
Maria Kriva, HMS
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