Horror Movie Review: The Haunting of Alcatraz (2020)

Regular horror aficionados will likely go into The Haunting of Alcatraz with some pre-conceived idea of what the film is going to do. After all, such a title doesn’t exactly scream ‘high quality’ stuff.

So, it has an uninspired name. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be your run of the mill ‘ghostly goings-on’ horror though.

Unfortunately, The Haunting of Alcatraz is worse than run of the mill. Simply because it is gets two fundamental things wrong. First, it’s not scary and second, it’s not interesting. In fact, the word that comes to mind is boring.

The Haunting of Alcatraz comes from writer/director Steve Lawson and stars Tom Hendryk, Chris Lines, Marcus Langford and Helen Crevel.

Charlie Schmidt (Hendryk) needs a job, a young man from money, his father is forcing him to go out into the world and prove he can earn a living. So, naturally he applies to work at most notorious prison ever, Alcatraz.

In case you’re wondering, no, this is not actually set in Alcatraz. Instead, an abandoned prison in the UK was used.

Charlie is given a dressing down by the warden who is trying to keep things in order as he is hoping for a big promotion. Before he is given the unattractive job of clerk in D Block, Alcatraz’s punishment unit. It’s there he meets guards Al (Lines) and Gerry (Langford), who are less than pleased to see him.

Why? Well, this is a prison with so much corruption, it makes Shawshank seem tame. However, that’s just part of the story. The other part surrounds Cell 13, where several inmates have ended up dead, seemingly having strangled themselves.

How does this all link together and what is the connection to the suicide of murderer Ed Wutz years before?

If you’re hoping for things to happen in this movie, be prepared to be shocked. This is a slow and tedious watch that focuses more on people telling us what happened and not actually showing it. That can work in small doses, allowing the imagination to run wild, but eventually some of that needs to become reality. The Haunting of Alcatraz fails to do that.

Not only that, it fails to create the atmosphere that a place like Alcatraz should have. Aside from a handful of characters, the prison seems very empty. Which is strange as everyone talks as though it is full to the brim.

Budget limitations? Maybe but that’s no excuse for the lack of supernatural events. The middle of the movie dominated by a burgeoning love story between Charlie and Sherry (Crevel), the latter being a prison nurse.

This would be fine; in fact, it would be praise-worthy as both characters are likeable and the acting is solid, if around that, we actually had something resembling horror.

When the film does finally begin to pick up in that department, it’s far too late and most will be bored too senseless to care. Not only that, it is paranormal events we’ve seen time after time.