Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Diagonaldi Very well executed

Lawbolisted Powerful

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

mherrin-43253 Grindstone Road: Directed by Melanie Orr and written by Paul GermannGrindstone Road is another movie where a couple after having suffered a tragedy moving from the great big city to a country home with a devastating secret. You've seen this movie before probably about a million different times. Fairuza Balk is the only reason this movie was even on my radar. I have put a moratorium on movies like this. I think I've seen enough movies like this to last me a very long time. This is a by the book ordinary film trying to be creepy and failing miserably in the process. We were able to guess every little thing that happened throughout this dull and generic mess. I'm not sure what time period this is designed to take place in but it features the usual staples of landline phones not working out in the country, going to the library to look at old newspapers rather than searching for these very same things online. This is what most of us would do now. This is why I think it must be in a different time period. I imagine the writer might be trying to bring back this type of story. I wish they hadn't and also wish they hadn't drug Fairuza Balk into this boring nonsense. The visual style of the movie is very flat. Nothing really pops out until the scenes in the afterlife but even then it's rudimentary. They try for those jump scares but fail immensely. Every type of scare it attempts flops horribly. The main thing about this story is the atmosphere and they can't even figure this one out. This movie is a dull, lazy and boring mess. Skip it.I give this movie a D.

Michael Kleen (makleen2) A young couple moves into an old farmhouse, only to experience a series of strange events. Is the ghost of a missing child reaching out for help from beyond the grave? In capable hands, Grindstone Road (2008), written by Paul Germann and directed by Melanie Orr, had the potential to be an entertaining (if not very original) horror film. Unfortunately, it doesn't even rise to the level of a made-for-TV movie.Melanie Orr is a script supervisor (oversees a film's continuity) who has directed episodes for a number of television shows. Grindstone Road was her sophomore effort. Paul Germann is a sound effects editor who has written a grand total of one film. Grindstone Road must have been so bad he never got another script optioned. It was like he had a weird dream and decided to make a movie out of it.Somehow they tricked Fairuza Balk into starring in their clichéd and mediocre Canadian horror film. Balk appeared in some popular movies in the '90s, including The Craft (1996), American History X (1998), and The Waterboy (1998), then dropped off the public's radar. She always embraced "alternative" roles, and wears a goth-ish outfit for one scene in this movie, but otherwise plays a conventional housewife. That's like asking Jackson Pollock to paint an idyllic country cottage. It's just not right.As bad as Grindstone Road is, at least it has an interesting story. Wracked with guilt over a car accident that left her son Daniel (Felix Pennell) in a deep coma, Hannah (Fairuza Balk) begins having strange experiences in her new home. Her husband, Graham (Greg Bryk), is oblivious and blames the antidepressants she takes to help ease the pain. Their neighbors, an elderly couple named Ted (Walter Learning) and Linda (Joan Gregson), alert them to the possibility their house is haunted.Hannah discovers a young boy, also named Daniel (Dylan Authors), disappeared while living in the house and may have been abused by his parents. John Dodson (Zachary Bennett), a mysterious man who only Hannah can see, serves as a red herring to deflect attention from the real villains. Since there are only a handful of characters, you can probably guess who they are. It was refreshing to see elderly antagonists, although the religious motivation behind their crimes is eye-rolling.With a budget of $1.5 million, there's really no excuse for the film to be this bad. Daniel's character looks like they slapped flour and black lipstick on his face. There are plenty of examples of decent horror movies with ghosts that look like regular people. They could have used context clues, lighting, or even an interesting costume to indicate he was a ghost, anything but this awful makeup. John Dodson is also a ghost, but goes makeup-free. I guess that's to trick the audience into thinking he's a living, breathing character.There is one captivating scene in which Hannah struggles to get out of a noose while hanging from the basement rafter. It looks real and it looks like Fairuza Balk did the scene herself.Filmmakers treat the horror genre as an excuse to make low quality films, and this check-the-box ghost story is no exception. Despite veteran leads (Greg Bryk also appeared in A History of Violence, Shoot 'Em Up, and a number of TV shows), Grindstone Road is the Halloween equivalent of a Hallmark Channel Christmas story. It currently has an 18 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and you can watch it for free on YouTube.

Paul Andrews Grindstone Rd. starts as Hannah Sloan (Fairuza Balk) visits her comatose son Daniel (Felix Pennall) in hospital, Daniel has been in a coma for about a year after a car accident in which Hannah was driving & as a result she blames herself for his condition. Hannah drives out to her childhood town of Evansville where an large old house on Grindstone Road is for sale, it's rundown & needs attention but Hannah falls in love with it & together with her psychiatrist husband Graham (Greg Bryk) moves in. Standing in the middle of a wood the Sloan's nearest neighbour's are elderly old couple Linda (Joan Gregson) & Ted Jenkins (Walter Learning) who seem friendly enough, however they seem nervous when inside the Sloan's house & Hannah soon discovers that many years ago a young boy named Daniel who lived there went missing & that the man who was accused of killing him committed suicide in the basement. Soon Hannah starts to experience supernatural visions & happenings as the house appears haunted by Daniel who seems to be trying to communicate with Hannah, if only someone would believe her...This Canadian production was directed by Melanie Orr & is a pretty dull supernatural drama thriller with little to recommend it, films like Grindstone Rd. are a dime a dozen & this dreary effort adds nothing new to the clichés & routine formula. The script is strictly by the numbers, someone with emotional issues moves into a big old creepy house & starts to experience supernatural visions & happenings as a ghost who suffered in life tries to communicate with said new owner & right the wrongs that they suffered, Grindstone Rd. is totally predictable & I saw the so-called twist ending coming a mile off since I have seen so many of these lacklustre rip-offs before & know the deal. Grindstone Rd. starts off alright, it introduces our character's in a semi mysterious way with various flashbacks & quickly cut scenes that don't seem to go anywhere (Hannah walking into a hospital room & then suddenly cutting to another scene for instance) that I suppose was meant to create some suspense but once the script switches to the old house & the plot starts to be revealed things go downhill fast. Virtually nothing happens, sure Hannah hears voices, sees a few ghostly images & rather randomly decides to investigate the disappearance of Daniel but it plods along at a Snail's pace & becomes extremely boring. The character's are dull, the events of the film are dull, the basic mystery surrounding the supernatural occurrences is dull & I found the 90 minute running time pretty hard to get through. I suppose if you like ghost stories in particular then you may like Grindstone Rd. as it's competent if forgettable but I just found the whole thing a predictable bore with a really annoying happier than happy ending.The low body count doesn't help either, in fact there isn't a body count as no-one is killed except the evil doers who the ghost wants revenge on & even then it's more in a self defence scenario rather than pure hate driven revenge. There's zero gore, there's a bath scene with no nudity & the scares are pretty tame. There are one or two nice shots here but overall Grindstone Rd. is forgettable on all levels. To call Grindstone Rd. a horror film is stretching things to be honest, even though it has a ghost in it I'd say it's more of a psychological thriller. Quite why Hannah feels she can solve the decades old mystery of Daniel disappearing when all the cops at the time couldn't I don't know & why did the killers who murdered Daniel all those years ago move out of the house & literally a few hundred feet down the road?Filmed in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada this has decent enough production values is is reasonably well made although it's fairly basic & not much to look at visually. The acting is alright, Balk is quite good I suppose if I want to be positive.Grindstone Rd. is a really dull ghost story, it's predictable & at 90 minutes long it takes forever to go nowhere in particular. There are better ways to waste an hour & a half, also what's up with the DVD cover? Sure it's great with dripping blood & an eerie looking house in a misty setting but doesn't represent the film at all, it's like they say though 'never judge a book by it's cover'.

Heislegend Grindstone Road is one of those forgettable but not altogether bad ghost story flicks that are about a dime a dozen. I say "ghost story" instead of "horror" because I don't think there's anything anyone would find even remotely scary going on here, but it still manages to worm it's way into what most people would consider a horror flick. Hey...if you can pass off The Messengers as a horror flick then the sky's wide open.The movie starts with our protagonist Hannah (Balk) having a flashback to a car accident that left her son in a coma. Now you might be tempted to think the accident is why Balk looks so awkward throughout the rest of the film, but then you remember that she's always looked that way. I swear, it looks like someone slammed a tennis ball into her mouth and she just left it there. It's really borderline distracting. Ugh. Oh...and a side note...when going to visit your vegetable son in the hospital it's probably bad form to wear high-heeled hooker boots. Kinda makes it look like you're not really that interested. Just a thought. Anyway...moving on.After becoming painfully aware of the movie's subplot (the accident and ensuing drama) via way too many flashback sequences, we see Balk and her husband move out to the country to start over...which seems weird because their kid isn't really dead, he's just comatose. Way to be great parents. Long story short the new house plays tricks on Hannah's mind (but only her...how predictable) and her husband starts to think she's nuts until all is made clear in an ending so anti-climactic and out of left field you'll wonder what the hell the last hour and twenty minutes were about. I mean, it all ties together and you saw it coming, but it still seems pretty lame and off topic.The cast isn't bad and the director does a good job of making the house as creepy as possible, but the movie just never really gets to where it wants to go. Or maybe it does and I just didn't care. Either way I'd say this is a fair bet if you've got nothing better to do/watch. Might not be a bad way to waste a Sunday afternoon. Then again, that can be said for a whole lot of movies that aren't very good.