MUIRHOUSE (2012) – On DVD from 10th February 2014

Muirhouse (2012)
Directed by: Tanzeal Rahim
Written by: Tanzeal Rahim
Starring: Iain P.F. McDonald, Kate Henderson, Steve Lynch

MUIRHOUSE (2012)
Written and directed by Tanzeal Rahim

Preparing to publish his book, The Dead Country, about haunted homesteads in Australia, author Philip Muirhouse (Iain P.F. McDonald) decides to shoot an accompanying documentary to release alongside the book. Muirhouse decides upon Monte Cristo house, a home once owned by William Crawley and his wife, who both passed away in the building. Since their deaths, there’s been numerous reported sightings of paranormal activity, which makes it the perfect house to focus his documentary on. However, is Philip prepared for what lies in wait at the old, spooky home?

Shot as a found footage film, the content of MUIRHOUSE is reported as ‘true events’, with the beginning of the film seeing the arrest of Philip Muirhouse from the view of a police camera on the dashboard of a patrol vehicle. According to the film’s synopsis, three people had been found dead with Philip Muirhouse the main suspect, though I don’t recall hearing this accusation on the police radio, or if it was mentioned, it was difficult to hear. The viewer is then taken on a journey of events leading up to his arrest, with footage from interviews with Muirhouse and his fellow ghost hunters, as well as radio interviews. Eventually the footage takes us to the Monte Cristo homestead, where Philip is waiting to meet his editor. All alone with nothing but his handheld camera, a couple of motion sensor cameras and a flashlight, Philip decides to start the documentary by himself.

MUIRHOUSE is essentially a haunted house movie and the bits inside the Monte Cristo homestead are done very well. The furnishings inside the home are quite gaudy and old fashioned, fitting in with the Victorian style in which it was built, and add to the overall eeriness. Being a real-life haunted house in New South Wales, reportedly the ‘most haunted house in Australia’, only makes for a more convincing location. When the lead character Philip turns up at the house, it doesn’t take long for the viewer to be made uncomfortable and the filmmakers does well create tension with the use of a POV handheld camera, putting us into the shoes of Philip who’s holding it.

Is the film scary? Not really, but it does feature a couple of jump scares that may startle, and the strange stories of babies being thrown from windows and a kitten found with its eyes gouged out and insides torn out only create more tension as Philip makes his way throughout the homestead. Philip’s character of an author and ghost hunter is a bit hard to swallow as it’s a tad too obvious he’s acting, and once things start going bump in the night, the script is pretty much lost to shouts of “who’s there?!”. Without any other characters to bounce off within the house, this can get a little monotonous, and the ending only serves to frustrate as it goes a bit Paranormal Activity.

There’s not a terrible amount of haunted house movies out there at the moment, and Muirhouse does a good job in setting the scene and giving those isolated scares, even if they are few and far between. What it lacks in story, Muirhouse makes up for in atmosphere.

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