Review – Deadline (2009)

So “horror movie” minus “horror” equals “taut psychological thriller”? Recalculate, please. I think you’ll find the correct answer is “boring.” Seriously, the scariest thing in this picture is wan, lackluster Brittany Murphy in one of her last roles. She plays a depressed author with writer’s block (always a bad sign) who sets up shop in a big, spooky house in the country in part to un-block herself and in part to avoid her malicious ex who’s just gotten out of prison. Naturally the place is haunted, but the ghosts’ overtures – knocking over a chair, leaving a tap on – are so phenomenally ordinary that they wear out their welcome before they get around to doing anything worth looking at. The main haint turns out to be a previous occupant of the house, a woman (Thora Birch) who ran afoul of her obsessive husband. This is one of those movies that take every predictable turn. See if desperate