'American Poltergeist' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews. It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'American Poltergeist' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is really nothing to recommend.Lets start with the sole positive. The setting, while simplistic, is fairly spooky at times.Unfortunately, it is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited and the drab colour palette, so much so it was hard to appreciate it, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness. Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on and extremely awkward prolonged pauses. Donna Spangler and the wooden lead are especially bad.Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour that makes some of the film play like a really bad spoof and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both incredibly poorly done.A lot of 'American Poltergeist' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random and aggressive with the subtlety of an axe. This is very dreary and amateurish stuff.Overall, awful with no redeeming value apart from an element that is difficult to appreciate with it being complemented so badly. 1/10 Bethany Cox

I would not review this if it was not to save people from 2 hrs of wasting their lives (and several more hours wishing they had not). First: Donna Spangler rivals Tommy Wiseau in "The Room" in acting performance here. Though The Room and Tommy is entertaining. Better things to do for 2 hours: *Intensely pick your nose for no reason at all. *Hammer a nail through your pinkie toe (I know, it HURTS!) *Prank call the Police 100 times. *Poop in your new (beige) 10.000 $ Barcelona sofa. *Hit your kind, loving mother with a metal soup spoon on the nose for no reason.Ok, that was the most brutal thing I've ever written about a movie, and I'm a mellow, kind man. But please, do not watch it...

AN ISIS video showing the mass murder of everyone involved in this movie would be better than this. It has the worst acting the worst writing the worst directing. Even the sound is terrible and the music is terrible. Donna Spangler is the worst actress in the history of people. 30 year old college students trapped in a house where none of the doors and windows are locked but their cars won't start. But people can drive to them and they live on a busy street. Creepy cop shows up at random hours of the day. Every single cliché of every awful movie is piled on. Homeowner her house to a pack of aging young people and then continues to live in the house. They host a 10 minute party with no food music or booze even though the house has a massive bar free for the taking. There's even a haunted sauna. And so on. This movie is so bad you can't even make fun of it.

This is the worse group of actors and actresses picked out of the bunch. Everybody seems to be talking like the clear eye commercial guy. If you have yet to watch this movie...Don't. its Horrible. What really get to me is that they made a sequel to this movie. I would give this movie on Rotten tomatoes Rotten with a side of maggots, flies, and ants. Just bad....