Grave Secrets is a fairly routine paranormal mystery with some dated ghostly special effects, but it does develop into a deliciously twisted tale towards the end, so hang in there: Iris Norwood (Renée Soutendijk) is bothered by spooky occurrences at her bed and breakfast home, so she enlists the help of paranormal expert David Shaw (Paul Le Mat). Staying at the B&B for a few days, David witnesses the strange events first hand and slowly unravels the mystery behind the haunting - it transpires that Iris is being terrorised by the headless ghost of her abusive father Kurt, who raped her and made her pregnant, and then buried her baby alive after she gave birth!!! That's some seriously unhinged stuff right there!

Since much of the film is rather sedate, with the spooky stuff limited to floating books and records, patience is definitely required, but there is a modicum of fun to be had along the way with David's dippy fashion disaster PA Darla (Olivia Barash),who tries to attract her boss's attention by bending over in front of him in a short skirt, and with David Warner as a medium, who conducts a seance in the haunted house. The final act finally delivers the more demented stuff, as David and Iris follow Kurt's ghost to find out where he buried baby Brian; however, they must do battle with her zombified father when a local guy inadvertently reunites the spook with his missing head! Naff '90s visual FX abound.

Grave Secrets (Secret Screams): 4 out of 10: Decent story about a haunting at a bed and breakfast is let down by a poor script, unfocused direction, and some poor acting choices.

The Good: Of all the actors in this I am willing to give Renée Soutendijk a pass. Considering what she is often given to work with she certainly seems to be trying to put together a character. She also has a semblance of charisma and screen presence.

Though they look funny today the special effects really are not all that bad. Well okay, they are sometimes that bad but they are fun and cartoonish and good lord at least something is happening onscreen.

The Bad: Paul Lemat has the charisma of wet toast in this and David Warner has what amounts to an extended cameo. Outside of a couple of townies and a perky female assistant, there are really no other characters in this film. The majority of the film is Renée Soutendijk telling Paul Lemat to leave her house and Paul basically ignoring her wishes in a way that could charitably be described as creepy in this me-too era. This is not as entertaining as one would think.

The story goes down some surprisingly dark paths. Too bad the script doesn't. The story is some horrifying content that is beyond dark but the script and the direction treat this as an extended Scooby Doo episode. Imagine Requiem for a Dream done by the American Pie people.

The Ugly: There are some interesting ideas in this film that are simply taken out back and shot. The film starts with our ghost hunting professor Lemat being visited by possible femme fatale Soutendijk. Lemat is in his office like Sam Spade with shadows and rain and the like. It is actually a really good start. Their next meeting one would expect in a smokey bar or on a foggy dock. Nope, a mall food court. It is as if the movie had a good idea and just forgot about it.

Speaking of forgotten about the local townie is clearly being set up as a jealous lover, former rapist, jealous of city folk threat to our leads (He throws an axe at them which they blame on the ghost.) He seems destined to have some sort of part to play in the stories resolution. Nope seems like the movie just forgot about him two-thirds of the way through.

In Conclusion: You know the AP style guide says that the modern preferred spelling of axe is ax. Apparently, axe is both old-fashioned and British. Am I so old that the language has changed on me? When did this happen?

As for the movie? Meh. Takes forever to finally get going and when it does the script pulls the stories punches. Skippable.

A woman tormented by ghostly apparitions and a professor of psychic phenomena (Paul LeMat) investigate other-worldly disturbances and unlock the secret of a malevolent force reaching out for vengeance from beyond the grave.

Oh, Paul LeMat, how the almost mighty have fallen. You went from being a star in "American Graffiti" to doing this film and "Puppet Master". You could have been a contender! Now, I am not trying to be rude, Paul. You are a fine actor and have a strong screen presence. How did you start getting these offers rather than blockbusters? Why did Harrison Ford get to be Han Solo instead of you?

The story and effects here are not bad, sort of like a toned down "Ghost Busters" (and not nearly as funny). Except here you sort of have to coax ghosts out rather than capture them. (In "Ghost Busters" they seem to be eternal and can only be stored. Here they "cross over" if wrongs have been put right.)

I cannot say this is the best film about a haunting. Not by far. But it is not bad, either. Watch this only if you have already seen "Changeling" -- that is a far superior film.