basaproject This is a film which honors patience. It is not for those who need action-packed adrenaline stoking from beginning to end. This is a film for those who appreciate the slow build up to terror of a classic Gothic ghost story.The characters speak slowly in careful Victorian, but Midwestern American, English as the year is 1892. The camera reveals scenes with a languid, sensuality. Yet, there is a discomforting eerie quality that builds as the film progresses. Most of the scenes are outside or within a 100-year old haunted house. A few sequences are of a bleak landscape separating the house from town. The sound track has a threatening undertone. John encounters a rat-killing couple on a bicycle ride into town. The encounter is the first of increasingly bizarre experiences that John, his wife, and sister-in-law, Jennifer have, after renting the house with yellow wallpaper. Suspense builds, like waves, each reaching a bit higher, and the viewer's tension notches up.The film is wonderfully atmospheric and full of symbolic allusion (e.g., town represents safety, where there is civilization, but it is cut off by desert, forest, and distant mountains, thus unattainable for those caught in the web of terror). The stark Victorian mansion, at first, seems to offer a comforting respite for the grief-stricken family. John and Charlotte have lost their daughter in a fire that consumed their previous house. True to its Gothic literary antecedent, however, the house's hidden terrors slowly enrapture and capture its occupants. The descent into terror and madness is a slow but steady incline, not a dash from a spring board.John, a medical doctor, demands that the family maintain its rational, civilized understanding of reality and thus seek understanding of the inexplicable events that begin to occur after moving into the house. Charlotte embraces the irrational-supernatural aura of the house as a means to reconnect with their deceased daughter. Jennifer, the pragmatist, brings in a "ghost-buster" from back east. So, what force will prevail and will the 3 survive as they approach the final horror the house dishes up? The production is first class in all respects. The sets appear historically accurate to the Victorian era. The soundtrack music is wonderfully eerie and then shrieks like Psycho when the viewer's nerves are about to snap with tension. The acting is superb by all 3 of the main characters, and the walk-ons are appropriately creepy. The writing and direction bring to life for 21st Century viewers a classic Gothic tale of terror.

Foxpup82-79-884183 I just can't understand why everyone loves this movie! The acting was comically wooden, with the exception of the sister and the psychic. My husband gave up on it after 15 very painfully slow minutes, but I persevered with it. The story by the the way has NOTHING to do with the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" other than a reference to the "rest cure" and place of women in Victorian society. And as mentioned by another reviewer, the main character is named Charlotte, a reference to Charlotte Gilbert, who wrote the short story. Oh, and there's an attic room with yellow wallpaper that the wife sometimes retreats to, but it's existence is Pretty arbitrary. THe plot was very broken up, and half the scenes take place in very dark rooms, making it difficult to see what was going on. The ending was a bit of whatever as well - it didn't seem to match the rest of the movie. it was an interesting premise, too bad it just didn't seem to flow. This could have been a good movie if: 1. They didn't call it The Yellow Wallpaper. False advertising! Why not give it it's own name? 2. The plot had some kind of flow to it, 3. better acting! Especially the male lead, who gave the most wooden performance I have EVER seen. Sadly, these elements were not there, making this clunker a discombobulated boring mess.

WarPoodle 2600 What was this? It sure wasn't The Yellow Wallpaper. This dull poorly acted and horribly written film fails in nearly every way. The short story The Yellow Wallpaper was one of my favorite short stories. It is a tail of madness and isolation in its purest form. This movie missed the point entirely. I knew from the first 30 seconds that this movie was a fail because its narrated from the husbands perspective which is wrong in so many ways. The first problem with this is that this story is supposed to be an exploration of madness from inside the mind of the person going mad. It is NOT a tragic tail about the husbands problems nor is it about a dead girl. I realize that ghost stories are trendy right now but there is no need to cheapen a great work of literature by even hinting at a supernatural influence. After watching this film i am left with one big question...Did the film makers even read the short story they made this movie from? The only positives i can give this movie is that its beautiful. The setting is perfect.. The mood and atmosphere is set so perfectly that this COULD have been a great movie.The lighting and staging puts the viewer on edge and really makes the viewer feel the melancholy isolation and tension. It is a shame that the film makers missed the point entirely and failed to explore what this story was really about. They didn't even get the perspectiv eright. missing the opportunity to put madness into a visual medium. Way to ruin a great work of literature.

wbohon I have always liked the Gothic novel upon which this movie is based, and so I was a bit fearful to see how director Logan Thomas had interpreted it. In short - It was wonderful. It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a movie enough to write a review. This was well- written, well-acted and well-directed. It was so beautiful and visually stimulating I could hang the stills around my house. I love the reinvention of this story - it is at once fantastically modern and relevant and yet dripping with history and antiquity. This is truly a masterful, rich and thrilling film. Definite must see!!