The Haunting of Julia Fields (2023) - 99% set-up

Apparently, the film with the most 'on the nose' title ever - 'The Haunting of Julia Fields' - was 'based on a true story.' If that means a girl rents a house, then I guess it's correct.  But I'm guessing the film-makers wanted to imply that the supernatural elements which befall her are the part which is supposed to be real.  I guess if you make it until the end you'll realise which parts were supposed to be 'real' and which weren't.  Um, that's pretty much a summary of the movie.  A girl - Julia Fields, would you believe! - moved into a rented house in Florida where she's slowly stalked by more and more supernatural events and entities.

And when I say 'slowly' I mean slow.  The film isn't long (not that much over an hour), but it does tend to drag.  I wanted to like this one more than I probably did, but there just isn't that much that happens.  Unless I blinked and missed the part where the story explains why a young girl (who looks more like she should be in college) can rent her own home and never seems to have to work, the central character does little more than wander round the house in her pyjamas and then hears a noise.

I know some people will say that this is all done to build tension, but there comes a time when the audience is just crying out for something to actually happen.  It doesn't help that Julia Fields lives on her own, therefore she doesn't really have many times where she can interact with any other character - until she encounters one creepy person after the next.  

However, saying all that, I did make it until the end.  It wasn't just because the film was so short that it was easy, but I actually quite liked the lead actress' performance and she certainly did her best with what little she was given.  Plus I wanted to see whether there was going to be some sort of major twist/payoff in the final moments.  I won't spoil the ending, but I will go as far as to say that, although this is an easy watch and has a few moments of creepiness, there isn't that much that a seasoned horror fan won't have seen before, meaning you can take or leave it really.

5/10 You can watch this film while you're doing the ironing (you'll still get the general gist of it)