'The Disappointments Room' stars Kate Beckinsale as a troubled woman who hopes her move to a new home in the country will help her cope with her past. The house however, brings with it more demons that she must struggle with while protecting her family and her sanity. The movie is said to be based on a true event, but I hope the true story is less boring and bland than this film. Director DJ Caruso has made some flicks that I did enjoy such as 'Disturbia' a nice Hitchcock tribute I highly recommend but here, I think there was some kind of clash of ideas.
On one hand, you have a deep drama about a disturbed and sorrow filled mother who is using the renovation of her new home as a way to ignore her problems. While on the other, you have this strange ghost story about the titular room and these two things just really do not go together at all. It should have been a ghost flick or a drama and because of this, the film comes off as a very mediocre 'Babadook' knock-off when it had more potential than that. Beckinsale does well as our heroine and you genuinely feel for her and she does get to have a full arc unlike most characters in a film such as this but I can't say that for anyone else unfortunately.
Her husband for instance, really adds nothing to the film even when he's supposed to be that guy who she can rely on he really just amounts to the cliche character who tells her nothing is wrong the whole film. I would say the two strangest and most aggravating characters are two of the local townsfolk who seem to appear for five seconds before going the way of the dinosaurs faster than you can say "Huh?". One is an elderly woman who gives exposition about the room and then during her final scene she attempts to call the house and warn them of danger, they never answer the phone, she hangs up, and we never see her again...What was the point of that?
The second character is a young man who attempts to work on the house and along the way strikes up a friendship with the mother before he's seemingly killed by the ghosts...until he vanishes and they never tell us he really died. In fact, that is how the entire ghost storyline goes as well. Nothing ever gets resolved or really explained beyond the basics of the haunting leading to migraine inducing frustration.
What I can say about the film that's positive is that it has a very nice old Gothic look to it, much like an old Hammer film and that's always a plus in my book and its not just the old house that shows off that style. We have an evil ghost dog straight from 'The Omen' that actually creeped me out and the dark wooded area just really gives a good atmosphere that I wish made the film better than it is. This movie is just confusing, and really doesn't know what it wants to tell its audience, which is a shame because I went in without any knowledge or even a trailer to guide me and I had hoped that would give me something better to go on when reviewing. Unfortunately, 'The Disappointments Room' just doesn't cut it especially when coming off one of the best streaks of horror flicks in years it's just a dare I say it? 'Disappointment'. There, I said it.
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