The Other Side of the Door

The Other Side of the Door

Starring Sarah Wayne Callies, Jeremy Sisto, Sofia Rosinsky, Logan Creran

Directed by Johannes Roberts

The Story:
Maria (Sarah Wayne Callies) and her husband Michael (Jeremy Sisto) suffered the death of their young son Oliver (Logan Creran), and six years later Maria still hasn't gotten over it, mostly due to her guilt for saving her daughter Lucy (Sofia Rosinsky) instead of Oliver.  While living in India, her housekeeper Piki (Suchitra Pillai-Malik) tells her that she can say goodbye to Oliver again by completing a ritual at a mysterious temple, but warns her no matter what she must not open the door.

She completes the ritual and talks to Oliver through the door, but opens it.  At first she sees nothing, but soon the house becomes haunted by Oliver's spirit - or possibly a demon taking the form of Oliver.  As Oliver's antics grow more dangerous, Maria realizes she must find a way to shut the door she had originally opened, but finds it's not easy.

The Synopsis:
"Sometimes, dead is better."

While watching "The Other Side of the Door" (hereby known as TOSD), I couldn't help but drawing obvious parallels to the classic Stephen King novel "Pet Sematary."  Both feature the death of a child, both have grieving parents, and both try to resurrect their dead child.  Yet, King did so in a way that was truly terrifying, while TOSD was simply a cookie-cutter cutout version of pretty much any haunted house movie you've ever seen, with the exception that it takes place in India and not America, and focuses on strange Hindu-related rituals.

For many people, there's that one actor that - no matter how good they are in a film - they cannot stand.  Mostly Tom Cruise comes to mind, due to his insane personal life, but for me one of those actors is Sarah Wayne Callies, not because of her personal life, but for her portrayal of Lori Grimes on "The Walking Dead."  She made Lori to be an insufferable character, and I was very relieved after she finally left the show.  Now, every time I see her in a film, I think back to Lori and I instantly don't care about her character.  Although, she does give a good performance here, it's still the lackluster overarching theme that drags the film down.

Credit can be given to director and writer Johannes Roberts for creating a wholly original film, even if there's clear parallels to other, greater films.  Still, it's so generic it might as well be vanilla-flavored ice cream.  Grieving mother wants to talk to her child again, and learns that she can - but she's under strict instructions to not open the door.  And what does she do?  She listens to sound reason and keeps the door shut, says goodbye, and lives a long happy life.

That would be a very short horror movie.  No, instead she swings the door open wide, ignoring the deadly instructions the same as if she downed a whole gallon of Tide even though it says in big letters to not do that.  So the haunting begins, much as they normally do, with toys being moved, noises at night, the family dog barking at nothing, and so on and so forth.  You're just waiting for the haunting to eventually amp up and reach its most logical conclusion.  To that end, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't take the traditional ending route and made it somewhat satisfying, but a good ending does not a good movie make.

Apart from Callies, there's very little screen time for any other actor, and they basically exist to follow behind Callies.  Suchitra Pillai-Malik's Piki is essentially the Zelda Rubinstein of the movie, and I kept waiting to hear her say, "go to the light!"  She is the one who tells Maria about the temple, and is the sole voice of reason through the madness, and that's about all she does.  Sofia Rosinsky plays Maria's daughter Lucy (although she's not in the sky with diamonds), whose hair is so unkempt and untamed she looks like she was plucked from the jungles and got house trained.  Yet it's Maria's husband, Michael, played by famed actor Jeremy Sisto, who gets the real short end of the stick.  Michael is your typical brain-dead counterpart, the one who has no clue what's going on, doesn't believe it when it does, and makes all the wrong moves.  It would've been better to have a cardboard cutout of Michael instead - it would've saved on money as well as been more entertaining.

The Summary:
Even though it was an original idea, "The Other Side of the Door" was filled with so many cliches and homages to better haunted house films, rendering it to generic obscurity and one that most people will probably forget seeing after the credits end.

The Score: C-