Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Poltergeist of Borley Forest’

Written by Scott Edwards

It is funny how parents forget that they had a bit of a wild side growing up, especially when they are trying to teach their kids a lesson. But there has to be some trust given to your kids at some point, because if you don’t give it to them, they will just end up acting out just to spite you. Hopefully you know your child’s friends pretty well, so at least you have some sort of idea what trouble and mischief they will be getting into rather than going in blindly and eventually getting a call to pick them up from the police station.

Waiting to meet her friend Ava at a party, Paige is shocked to find out that her best friend in the world will not be coming. With the party taking place in the haunted Borley Forest, Paige wants to leave, but is unable to find her ride, so she starts making the trek through the creepy woods. Thinking little about what is around her, she stumbles upon an old tree with a rope hanging from it. With no idea what this means, or what happened in the forest many years ago, she finds her way home only to be grounded for lying about what she was doing tonight.

While having dinner with her family, her older brother joins and Tommy is surprised that his younger sister is in trouble. Trying to plead with his parents about the punishment, Tommy is unsuccessful and is forced to watch his little sister suffer. But Paige is alright and able to take care of her other commitments including her job. Bumping into Ava at her job, Paige lays into her making sure she understands how badly she feels betrayed. Going through her motions, she gets stopped by Cooper who is nice and funny, but Paige wants nothing to do with him. Warming up a little bit to the stranger after they talk for a bit, Paige cannot even consider dating him, due to the grounding and all, but he stays on her mind.

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Usually her room is a safe haven for Paige, but something has changed and being woken up in the middle of the night consistently now, she is barely ready to take on the day when she wakes up. But what really gets her motor going is when a strange message is written on the mirror in her bathroom while she was taking a shower. Having Cooper show up at the door right after it happened has does not fare well for the guy but knowing that she is having some troubles around the house, he backs off.
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With her parents going on vacation without her, Paige is left alone in the house under the supervision of her brother and his wife. Not being able to give his sister his complete attention due to work, Tommy rigs the security cameras around the house to make sure that his parents do not suspect him staying away. But there is something that Tommy wants to check out for the family as a mysterious flower delivery is given to his sister and when he finds the footage with nobody on it, he knows that there is something up at the house. Not being able to leave the house, Paige invites her friend Jenna over for a sleepover since she is lonely, but there is something else in the house with sinister ideas of what to do with the girls and when Jenna is frightened so badly to become catatonic, Tommy knows that the footage he found could be the answer to what is happening in the house. Knowing that the ghost in the house will not leave on its own, Paige is encouraged to find out why it is attached to her and what it wants, but all is not good when she finds out the truth and is all has to do with the Borley Forest, which has plenty of demons of its own.

Not really the kind of poltergeist type movie I was expecting, but it was still fun to see people get attacked in a ghost movie. Every ghost story has a mystery surrounding it and this one was pretty good and even though it gets a little crazy as the end gets near, I liked seeing how the spirit interacted with the living. With plenty of ghostly shadows in her room, Paige has no idea what is really haunting her and when she finally has questions, well, they never get answered which is a shame. I am still blown away by the ghost hunter that gets called in to help, since he has never dealt with a real haunting before and how worthless he really is to the cause. The ghost attacks are priceless, even though they may be too powerful for a poltergeist to do, it will make you think twice about entering a haunted forest, especially for a silly party. Stay Scared.

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