Haunting Love (2012)

Incredible eerie mental puzzle

For a movie that is a little older (2012) I was pleasantly surprised to find it one of the better thrillers i watched. I'm picky when it comes to genres i don't usually watch. Thrillers being one of those. But this one exceeded my expectations.

The build up starts out perfectly balanced between brooding images, eerie music and not a word spoken. It sets a good start for what you know is going to be a theme that is held very well throughout the movie.
The dark sets, eerie music and overall creepiness even in regular scene really jumps out and makes you feel uncomfortable just watching it. Which is exactly what a movie like this is supposed to do.

Although i think they could have cut back on the ghost scenes. As it makes a point early on that the main character is experiencing trauma/mental issues. But throwing these in at seemingly random times and in a way that becomes an awfully cliché horror scene diminishes the progress of the movie and doesn't really add anything other then it making things a bit more 'scary'. I mean: I get it, they're dead. Leave them dead. Don't show their red eyed corpses every other 5 minutes. Geez.

Apart from that, the script hides the clues well and makes for a good mental puzzle that keeps you guessing until the near end of the movie. With red herrings and misplaced clues to confuse you; every time you think you know what's what the movie takes another turn and you're left guessing all over again until finally all pieces fall into place with a nice albeit cliché plot twist in the end.

The female lead portrays her character very well. Although 90% of the time it's just one emotion: scared. It's still believable with the way she expresses how that fear comes to grip at her being. And incredible the way she displays so many different aspects of the same emotion. Though her acting really reaches it's peak later on in the movie with some scenes i won't spoil.

The side characters were not all equally convincing. But supported the story enough to keep you invested until the end.

The music was chosen with precision. Increasing the dreary and ominous feeling. Though it's not something i'd enjoy listening to more often, it really adds to the gloomy atmosphere and the thickening plot, as well as the dark sets and dim lighting throughout the film.

All in all it was an enjoyable mental puzzle that i loved solving. But as they say: You can only solve it once, after that you know how it goes. With that i wouldn't necessarily be quick to rewatch it because i've solved this puzzle. But i would probably give this another go to see if i can spot other details i missed in the first watch.

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