Haunter

Atmosphere trumps scares in Vincenzo Natali's supernatural thriller, which stars Abigail Breslin as Lisa, a teen who comes to realize that she and her Reagan-era parents and younger brother are endlessly repeating a single day over and over again in their fog-shrouded home. After investigating strange sounds coming from the basement (amongst other peculiarities), Lisa concludes that she and her family are in fact ghosts, their predicament somehow linked to the mysterious disappearances of numerous teenage girls dating back more than half a century—as well as to the unhappy fate that might befall someone living in the house right now. All the spooky goings-on eventually focus on a menacing telephone repairman (Stephen McHattie) who shows up to warn Lisa that her investigations are dangerous to her entire family. Although the script raises more questions than it answers, Haunter successfully creates a genuinely creepy mood, while Breslin and McHattie deliver first-rate performances. In the end, Haunter is not exactly a groundbreaking ghost story, but it does bring enough twists to the haunted-house genre to merit a look. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)