This film was a whole lot of nothing. Nothing happens at all. It's world-record-level boring. There's no character development. There's no emotional experience. It isn't remotely horror. Or a thriller. It's not suspenseful. It's not entertaining. It's not campy. It's got nothing going for it. The whole thing feels like clickbait.

The acting is so painfully awful, you just can't get past it. And the script is even worse. The only redeeming quality was the atmosphere and possibly a little of the cinematography, but since everything else was completely butchered, it doesn't do much. The sound editing could have been fantastic and eerie but instead of being tactful and subtle, it was completely obnoxious, failing to have its intended effect.

I am giving two stars because I somehow got conned into watching to the end thinking MAYBE something redeeming would happen in the final five minutes. It didn't.

Please do yourself a favor and skip this. I seriously implore you to not waste your time. This isn't even worth playing in the background. It isn't worth watching for horror connoisseurs, completionists, or anyone expecting horror or any of its elements in any capacity whatsoever. This is easily in the top 10 worst films I've ever sat through.

Firstly, the film uses excellent ambiance and sound to draw the audience in. The cinematography lends itself to the period. The relationship tension serves to set the tone of the film up until the catharsis. It teases jump scares, relying more on suspense; delivering a truely scintillating sequence between the haunt and the lead. Undoubtedly, a good after midnight film when you don't want something too scary but want something gripping.

The dialogue could have been better linked to the bible; It would have made the character's return to faith more concrete and enjoyable. The jaded nature of the protagonist makes the character arc quite satisfying, even though it's somewhat understated. It's beauty is in its minimalism, and the set does a lot of work for the feel of the film.

Unanswered questions allow the audience to imagine their own narrative and is a welcome style choice.

First I want to commend the film makers on their stunningly accurate portrayal of how rural Appalachian people behave, especially old people. There was an eerie backwoods realism to The Hopewell Haunting, all the way down to the illiterate but nice young husband with what appeared to be an intellectually disabled wife. As creepy as it totally was, that this disabled woman did not say a word for the entire film and was led around like a small child or an Alzheimer's patient, even that icky detail was on point.

The haunting screams are also genuinely disturbing.

The plot itself is fair to middling. I would have appreciated a clearer backstory as a conclusion to the film. It honestly bugged me that two - possibly three - of the characters were in their 70s yet not one of these old men had any clue about this ancient murder in their own hometown where they'd lived for their entire lives.