The Haunting of Julia Fields Review – A Convoluted Paranormal Mess

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are reviewing paranormal horror movie The Haunting of Julia Fields.

Before we start, this movie makes a bold claim that it is based on a true story. I am going to spoiler alert you because it most definitely is not. You can find out the entire truth in my The Haunting of Julia Fields Ending Explained article. In the article I explain everything that happened.

A dull paranormal horror

Everything about The Haunting of Julia Fields feels incredibly familiar. This is your typical, run of the mill, paranormal horror that does nothing new and takes no risks. Everything you would expect to see in a haunted house movie is here. Scratching at the ceiling? Check. Things hiding in closets? Check. Strange shadows in the background haunting the protagonist? Check. This is a movie that is happy to take liberties with horror cliché.

“Everything about The Haunting of Julia Fields feels incredibly familiar. This is your typical, run-of-the-mill, paranormal horror that takes no risks.”

The Haunting of Julia Fields does attempt to differentiate itself from similar movies in a couple of ways. One of which being its claim that it is based on a true story, as we talked about above, and another being the constant use of red herrings to keep the viewer guessing.

This movie throws almost every single possible cliché explanation for the events taking place at the viewer. Could it be mental illness? Is it an actual haunting? Is the character being stalked? Could certain characters be up to no good or is it a combination of all these things?

Messy and a bit convoluted

It becomes clear, very quickly, that the writer will do anything they can to keep you guessing. The problem is, none of it gels together very cohesively. Joseph Mazzaferro’s chaotic storytelling presents us with a smorgasbord of different story elements all competing for attention. To be honest, the plot is messy and a bit convoluted, there’s too many things going on to create a neat and tidy narrative.

You can’t just throw a ton of radically different plot elements together and hope that it works. It just leads to a mess of human drama, paranormal goings on and straight up creepy stalker shit. None of which is well fleshed out and none of which works particularly well together.

“The plot is messy and a bit convoluted; there are too many things going on to create a neat and tidy narrative. You can’t just throw radically different plot elements together.”

I couldn’t help but feel like Mazzaferro didn’t even know how the movie would end until he pulled it out of a hat; it is that random. The ending represents a coming together of all the rather disparate events of the movie. Leading to a baffling conclusion that begs the questions “how did it come to this?”. Much of what happens is illogical and poorly explained.

Just not very scary

On top of these issues, The Haunting of Julia Fields simply isn’t very scary. It repeatedly visits the well of horror cliché and comes back with mediocre offerings that aren’t particularly effective when done well. Never mind when they are obviously projected and go on for too long. It is so easy to guess when a scare is coming up and so easy to predict how the scenario will play out. There is no inventiveness here with the movie being far too content to rely on tried and tested horror tropes of old.

The sheer number of different elements at play here don’t do the movie any favours when it comes to scares. There is almost too many things to focus on diluting the threat to our protagonists significantly. It would be remiss of me to not mention how bad some of the costume work is here, as well. If I said “cheap Halloween store suit” you might get an idea of what I mean. It looks terrible and provokes laughs rather the desired feeling of shock or fear. 

Typically low budget

The Haunting of Julia Fields is a typically low budget feeling horror. Camera work is rather lacklustre and every shot feels horribly washed out. Colours are under-saturated and there is a distinct grayness to everything that makes the movie feel a bit gloomy. Locations are limited and I wasn’t overly impressed by the beach scenes. How do you manage to find such a crappy looking beach in Florida?

Acting from Callie Grayson as Julia is a bit of a mixed bag. She is a bit stiff and a bit uncomfortable at times. As the movie goes on, she seems to lose her motivation considerably. Resorting to one facial expression for much of the movie’s length. I feel like this might be inexperience more than anything, though. She does a good job in a number of scenes and probably just needs more room to grow. She has plenty of moments where she feels very natural and convincing. 

“It throws a ton of different horror tropes in the pot with clichés like mental illness and ghosts. In the end, they just don’t gel together well.”

Austin Janowsky, on the other hand, as Sam is a lot more awkward. He has some moments that seriously made me think of The Room and other similar movies featuring wooden acting. He just seems so uncomfortable and unsure of how he is supposed to deliver his lines. It’s genuinely a bit distracting at times. Jess Gluzband, as Julia’s friend, is far better. Seeming confident and comfortable and doing a generally decent job.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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