Review: A Haunted House, starring Marlon Wayans

Malcolm (Marlon Wayans) has finally grown up and is ready to take the plunge and let long term girlfriend, Keisha (Essence Atkins), move in with him. However, no sooner as she arrives, strange things start to go bump in the night, which certainly isn’t their sex life. Malcolm takes the obvious action of setting up CCTV and video camera’s around the house to find out what is really going on and soon discovers girlfriend Keisha has not only brought with her hordes of pointless stuff but also something quite demonic. The couple decide to recruit Father Williams (Cedric the Entertainer) to exorcise this demon out of their house and out of Keisha before it ruins every part of their relationship.

Written and starring none other than the hilarious Marlon Wayans, creator and comical messiah behind films such as Scary Movie and White Chicks, he delivers to film audiences another parody of the found footage paranormal phenomenon that has overtaken the horror genre. A Haunted House spoofs the extremely successful series of Paranormal Activity, whilst immolating the base story it also has a slight touch of the Exorcism thrown in for good measure but all with a highly amusing twist.

This isn’t a “great” movie, far from it, and some critics out there will absolutely hate it because it doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s full of completely ridiculous, immature and raunchy scenes and language that make you cringe but will also make you reach into the depths of your stomachs and make you really belly laugh to the point of crying. One scene in particular that sticks so firmly in the mind is Keisha’s first night in the house with Malcolm, whilst she is getting ready for bed in the bathroom, we witness a practically naked Malcolm, hilariously playing out many a sexual position with a stuffed toy, working up a sweat only to have his libido dampened at the sight of what his girlfriend really looks like when ready for bed. I think I also need to add here that this film may not be suitable to anyone under the age of 15.

Some of these parody movies really don’t have a cast that gel well together and that comes across too easily on screen BUT the cast here tick all the right boxes, each performance just seemed so flawlessly acted out and you couldn’t even tell that some lines, especially from Cedric where actually improvised. Marlon Wayans is actually what you would expect in this role, comedy genius and provides a nice bit of eye candy for the ladies. Essence Atkins as girlfriend Keisha certainly seems to come into her own and actually outshines Marlon on a few occasions on her comedic delivery. Cedric the Entertainer entertains with his portrayal of the “ghetto” Father Williams and even the very gay psychic played by Nick Swardson fits in perfectly.

From time to time we all just want to sit back and watch a film we don’t want to think about too much, we want something that makes us smile and just purely and simply entertain us, A Haunted House delivers exactly that, for that alone it’s worth the price of a ticket to the cinema.

A Haunted House is in cinemas 19th June 2013