The Haunting of Helena A Review (SPOILERS)
Filmed in Italy and released in 2012, The Haunting of Helena has turned out to be a basic cliqued ghost film. I watched it on Netflix late one night last week, and needless to say I slept like a baby that night.
The film is about a recently divorced woman and her daughter Helena, who, after having recovered from a near tragic car accident, have begun to experience supernatural phenomena in the form of a woman who died in the days of Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship at the hands of her husband. The story seems to be that the husband, in a jealous rage, ripped out all her teeth and left her to die in a closet that still exists in the apartment. This ghost apparently seems to be seeking out the teeth her husband ripped out. After scaring the living crap out of Helena and her mom, they run out of there and spend the next 18 months in a hospital where Helena has not spoken. Then the ghost shows up there to start her business again. After various horror scenes with raining teeth and spooking appearances, Helena, who by the way is quite creepy looking in her own right, sadly starts telling her mother that the ghost won’t stop.
There is also the ghost of a little girl...apparently the "tooth woman's" daughter, who died also during that time period. I have to admit she was spooky also, but she reminded me too much of those twins from Stephen King's The Shining.
As the mother does further research, she discovers that the man who ripped her teeth out didn’t do it out of a jealous fit….he did it to protect children….namely his. This woman apparently had a taste for children’s flesh and he had to put a stop to it. This sucks for the mother because she thought she had broken the curse after finding the woman’s actual teeth encased behind a frame in a creepy chapel. She had gone to the haunted closet and gave the teeth back to the woman, hoping she would leave her daughter alone finally. Guess what? The ghost proceeded to kill Helena by trying to eat her. Mom finds her mutilated face in a room in the hospital and screams an ungodly scream.
At the end of the movie the mother is now a patient at that hospital. You see her sitting on a bench as Helena’s ghost, now mutilated by the face looks on her mother in sadness.
This movie was only creepy when we see the ghost first make her appearance. I have to admit it got me good there, but the low quality acting did little to make up for the rest of the film. It contained a sort of predictability that, in light of today’s ghost films, may have faired better in the 70’s, and that may be asking too much of it.
I give The Haunting of Helena 2 coffee cups. Not worthy of my library, but for a Netflix view at night may be worth one’s time.
The film is about a recently divorced woman and her daughter Helena, who, after having recovered from a near tragic car accident, have begun to experience supernatural phenomena in the form of a woman who died in the days of Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship at the hands of her husband. The story seems to be that the husband, in a jealous rage, ripped out all her teeth and left her to die in a closet that still exists in the apartment. This ghost apparently seems to be seeking out the teeth her husband ripped out. After scaring the living crap out of Helena and her mom, they run out of there and spend the next 18 months in a hospital where Helena has not spoken. Then the ghost shows up there to start her business again. After various horror scenes with raining teeth and spooking appearances, Helena, who by the way is quite creepy looking in her own right, sadly starts telling her mother that the ghost won’t stop.
There is also the ghost of a little girl...apparently the "tooth woman's" daughter, who died also during that time period. I have to admit she was spooky also, but she reminded me too much of those twins from Stephen King's The Shining.
As the mother does further research, she discovers that the man who ripped her teeth out didn’t do it out of a jealous fit….he did it to protect children….namely his. This woman apparently had a taste for children’s flesh and he had to put a stop to it. This sucks for the mother because she thought she had broken the curse after finding the woman’s actual teeth encased behind a frame in a creepy chapel. She had gone to the haunted closet and gave the teeth back to the woman, hoping she would leave her daughter alone finally. Guess what? The ghost proceeded to kill Helena by trying to eat her. Mom finds her mutilated face in a room in the hospital and screams an ungodly scream.
At the end of the movie the mother is now a patient at that hospital. You see her sitting on a bench as Helena’s ghost, now mutilated by the face looks on her mother in sadness.
This movie was only creepy when we see the ghost first make her appearance. I have to admit it got me good there, but the low quality acting did little to make up for the rest of the film. It contained a sort of predictability that, in light of today’s ghost films, may have faired better in the 70’s, and that may be asking too much of it.
I give The Haunting of Helena 2 coffee cups. Not worthy of my library, but for a Netflix view at night may be worth one’s time.
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