Take a bit of "The Sixth Sense", add a dash of "The Shining", and then horribly mangle the elements of both, and you end up with "Campton Manor".

Jack wishes to finally sovlve the mystery of numerous deaths that happened at Campton Manor many years past. He seeks out Teddy to enlist his help in solving this unsolved, famous case. Teddy is a horror novelist who is capable of seeing and interacting with the dead, you see. At first, Teddy declines Jack's proposition, but then relents and decides to help Jack out after all.

Jack and Teddy venture forth to the long-abandoned Campton Manor, and before long, Teddy is met by the shade of Lance Campton. Teddy and Lance engage in a bit of cryptic banter, and then Teddy goes off to find Jack, who is exploring elsewhere in the manor. Teddy tells Jack about having been met by Lance, and brings Jack to the sitting room/parlor where he encountered Lance. Well, Teddy's powers of supernatural perception must be exceptional, exceptional to the point of conferring his abilities to others, as Jack is suddenly about to see and interact with Lance, as well.

Lance encourages Teddy and Jack to continue in their investigation, and asks that if they happen upon his mistress, that they tell her to go and see Lance. Now, toss in elements of "The Exorcist" and "Ghost Story", and REALLY muddle things up! Eventually, Jack becomes able to see and converse with the spirits of the dead all on his own, independent of Teddy's proximity to him.

This movie is a muddled mess that fails to pay homage to any of the other films mentioned in this review. Is Jack a ghost? Was he all along? Does Teddy become a ghost? There is just too much about this mangled mess that makes no sense, at all. I ended up being sorry that I rented and watched it. My guess is that you might end up the same way.

It's a rare movie that can fail on every level. The most impressive thing about this one is that you can't be absolutely sure it's as stupid as it is until pretty close to the end, and then it's too late. For a while it seems like it might be a solid indie film that just didn't have much of a budget. You can see how cheap it looks and how mediocre and strangely cast the actors are, but it seems like it might be going somewhere. About the time you start to think that not having much money doesn't actually explain these decisions, the characters get a lot more talkative and you suddenly realize this thing was written by someone who makes Stephenie Meyer look like Ernest Hemingway. Now everyone's delivering long, florid speeches (complete with bad grammar). Twists are introduced that are mind-bogglingly silly, and you can just tell whoever came up with them thought they were solid. Now there are action movie one-liners and some seriously gross misandry happening and the whole thing has melted into an incomprehensible mess. At this point there are ten minutes left, and even though you've wasted your evening and $5 on Prime, you have enough respect for yourself to cut your losses and turn it off.

That last part may just be me.