They Wait

Though the film kicks off with a relatively promising first act, They Wait quickly devolves into a tedious and downright silly piece of work. The movie, which follows Jaime King’s Sarah as she encounters a series of apparitions following a trip to Vancouver’s Chinatown, has been peppered with a whole host of superfluous elements, as screenwriters Trevor Markwart, Carl Bessai, and Doug Taylor attempt to compensate for the less-than-enthralling plot by throwing in underdeveloped supporting characters and an eye-rollingly hackneyed backstory for the ghosts. Produced by no less than Uwe Boll, They Wait, quite frankly, has straight-to-video written all over it; everything, from the visuals to the performances, seems to be operating at a sub-B-movie level, and it’s consequently impossible not to wonder how the film landed a spot at the festival. The slow-paced atmosphere does the proceedings few favors, and although there are admittedly a few effective “boo!” moments spread thinly throughout the movie’s padded-out running time, They Wait ultimately fails to make much of an impact either as a familial drama or as a flat-out horror picture.

*1/2 out of ****

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