The House on Haunted Grounds (2026) Review

Synopsis

A paranormal team investigates a house where an infamous serial killer (who wore a clown mask) was gunned down, shortly before the building’s planned demolition.

Good Points

• Brendan Rudnicki has clearly improved as a filmmaker compared to some of his earlier work, and that’s always a good thing to see.
  
  
• The strange events start fairly early and keep coming throughout most of the runtime, so not much patience needed.
  
  
• Some of the horror moments look genuinely good, especially considering the budget.
  
  
• There is more on-screen violence than I expected, and a couple of deaths are a bit nasty.
  
  
• Andrew Thomas becomes more entertaining as the film goes on.
  
  
• The cast generally feel natural together, and nobody sticks out in a bad way.
  
  
• The atmosphere is maintained pretty well for most of the runtime because there is usually something happening in the background or around the characters.
  
  
• The Ouija board sequence was one of the more enjoyable scenes.
  
  
• The film doesn’t overstay its welcome.
  
  
• There are a few genuinely creepy visual moments involving apparitions and background activity that worked well.
  
  
• For a found footage film, the editing is mostly tight and keeps things moving at a good pace.

Bad Points

• The biggest problem for me was how much of it felt like other found footage horror films, and the similarities to paranormal horror movies in particular are certainly hard to ignore.
  
  
• The films scare attempts rely very heavily on familiar horror tricks, which horror fans will spot coming a mile away.
  
  
• The found footage format does fall apart quite badly when you actually start thinking about how certain shots could even exist.
  
  
• Some moments feel more like a traditionally shot horror movie than found footage.
  
  
• A few character dynamics feel very familiar, especially the argumentative team members and the technician who spends most of the film getting picked on.
  
  
• The story itself is pretty basic and doesn’t offer many surprises once things get underway.
  
  
• The final act lost momentum and never quite delivered a of a strong finish that I was hoping for.
  
  
• It doesn’t really bring anything new to the found footage genre, so if you’re looking for fresh ideas, this probably isn’t the film that’s going to provide them.
  
  
• The film shows its hand fairly early and sticks with the same approach throughout, which becomes a bit repetitive.

Final thoughts on The House on Haunted Grounds

It certainly isn’t breaking any new ground, and is very familiar and cheap kind of horror that you will have seen a million times before, but there were a couple of moments that made me sit up and pay attention.

Not that good, but I have seen worse.

The House on Haunted Grounds on IMDB
The House on Haunted Grounds Trailer
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