Movie Review by EDF
Starring: Billie Piper, Luke Mably, Emma Catherwood, Sam Troughton, Alsou
Director: David Smith
We all know that we are surrounded by spirits who seek eternal rest. Some of us are haunted by a tragic turn of circumstance that loads us with a burden that is hard to shake. We can also unconsciously take our troubles from one place to another and end up involving other people in our plight. Other times, a building encases the tragic spectre and the structure becomes haunted. When you mix both elements, it can only spell trouble for all concerned.
A homeless man tries to break into a deserted house. As he is trying to force the front door open, a slate falls from the roof and hits him on his head killing him instantly, leaving a bolognese type stain on the snow. What this has to do with the five students moving into the cheap accommodation on Fortune Green is explained somewhat later on. Luckily this lot have a front key and they enter the house unawares.
Jenny (Billie Piper) finds a Russian spirit clock in the hall; a clock that is supposed to bridge our world to the spirit world. Nick (Sam Troughton) fixes the clock and finds that a diary was wedged in the clock’s mechanism. Why it takes them another 50 minutes to investigate what is written within the diary is anybody’s guess. Jenny then dreams about going to her university to enquire about who had contacted her about the house and finds that it was not the university that had placed her in the house.
Then some ghostly scribbles from the spirits give Jenny a message from her deceased mother, “Mother Love”. The other students are the drug dealing Tom (Luke Mably) and Adele (Emma Catherwood) and the mysterious Tina (Alsou). When Tom’s drugs go missing, Tom blames everyone and insists on searching the house from top to bottom. Adele then starts accusing Tina of eyeing up her man. The drugs are eventually found behind the spirit clock. Tom then blames Adele for using up some of his stash. Jenny gets a call on her mobile from her dead mother saying that someone has to die by midnight.
This is the sort of house where the plumbing rattles, doors creak open by themselves and eerie voices float throughout the corridors. SPIRIT TRAP was obviously shot before Billie Piper’s wonderful performance on the new run of the Doctor Who series. Yet again she carries this movie well so it is a bit unfortunate that the story plays like a pilot for an X FILES type series. The story is predictable and the idea of a haunted house has been played out countless times before. It would have been nice if there had been an unexpected twist. Since there isn’t, you come away feeling like you have just watched a kiddies version of horror.
