Nightmare at the End of the Hall (2008 TV Movie) User Reviews

Predictable Thriller

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 23 March 2014]

At the Douglas Academy Boarding School, Courtney Snow (Sara Rue) and Jane Halloran (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) are best friends and Jane is in love with her classmate Brett (Kavan Smith), who is the son of the Headmaster Ian Ramsey (Duncan Regehr). Jane goes to Cambridge and when she returns, she goes missing at school. Courtney and Ian seek her out and they discover that she committed suicide in a store and her journal is never found.

Seventeen years later, Courtney Snow has become a famous writer with the novel she wrote based on Jane and she is invited to teach at Douglas. She accepts the invitation but when she sees the wealthy student Laurel McAvoy, she realizes that Laurel resembles Jane. Soon Courtney believes that Laurel is actually the reincarnation of Jane.

"Nightmare at the End of the Hall" is a totally predictable Canadian thriller with a good story but poor screenplay. In the middle of the movie, only Courtney Snow is not capable to foresee the whole plot. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Reencarnação – O Medo Encontra-se em Repouso" ("Reincarnation – The Fear Stays Resting")

weak filmmaking

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 14 September 2019]

17 years earlier at the Douglas Academy Boarding School, Jane is found dead in a storeroom at the end of the hall. It's assumed to be a suicide and her journal is missing. Present day, Jane's best friend Courtney Snow (Sara Rue) returns to the school for a reunion after writing a successful novel about her dead friend. She is struggling to write a second novel and is convinced to join the faculty. She reconnects with former classmate Brett who is the son of Headmaster Ian Ramsey. The storeroom has been reopened and student Laurel McAvoy living there resembles her dead best friend Jane.

There are requirements that this movie never fulfills. Sara Rue does not really resemble Amber Borycki. It's always problematic to switch back and forth to the flashbacks. It's probably better to simply put a wig on Sara Rue and have her play her younger self. The role of Laura/Jane needs someone much more distinctive. It needs someone with a recognizable face which immediate screams out doppelganger. Aside from those issues, this is a rather choppy, weak movie. As a horror, there is nothing scary or even spooky. Some of ghostly aspect is downright bad. There is a general poor quality to the production.

An enjoyable drama that never thrills

[sorendanni · 6/10 · 3 April 2022]

Although the DVD box says horror, I would call Nightmare at the end of the hall a psychiatric drama with a paranormal storyline.

The plot is decent but unfortunately also a bit predictable. In short, a traumatized author is offered an offer as a teacher at her former boarding school. In the room where her best friend committed suicide, a student who looks just like her has moved in. What follows is a search for the reason why the girlfriend committed suicide. And why the new pupil looks so much like her.

It was an interesting film, but the cinematography, the acting, the plot twist, the special effects,... Everything could have been better. Unfortunately. There is just no single thrill to be found, a big shame.

Still 6/10, because I watched the film without getting bored. If you find the DVD very cheap in the budget racks, then consider. Do not expect an exciting thriller and certainly not a horror movie.

At least age the girl a little bit after 17 years!

[LaverneandShirleysucks · 1/10 · 21 June 2022]

It's supposed to be 17 years later from when she was in college, but they didn't do anything to age the actress to have her look like someone in their mid to late 30's after nearly 2 decades have gone by. She's supposed to be a teacher at the school now but laughably still looks like the 19 year old college student she was at the beginning of the film. I just couldn't get into it after that. I see the actress was only 28 when she filmed the movie and the actress who played the college student version of her was just 4 years younger lol. Please.

Put some money in the makeup budget to at least TRY to make the actress appear 10 years older than she actually is. Can't recommend.

Hope you didn't pay to watch this

[Kubcakes · 3/10 · 18 June 2009]

I sure didn't pay to see this, and I doubt this movie will haul in any big bucks.. This film is really something you would see sent on some mid-budget TV channel quite late at night on a weekday. (Like "Onsdagsfilmen" on TVNorge for the Norwegians out there)

To be honest it wasn't completely terrible, the story was, well, OK'ish I suppose. Nothing you haven't seen before. If it wasn't for the supernatural part of it it's something you could've probably seen portrayed on all the crime shows, i.e CSI,Cold Case, Law&Order etc etc.

Although the characters were a bit "flat" I liked the one who played Jane, and the younger version of the lead character.

I don't think this movie really deserves a much longer comment, you get what I'm trying to say. It's a cheap TV movie, not incredibly badly done but not good either. If it wasn't for the fact that I was at work on the night shift and I had nothing better to do I would probably have turned it off to watch something else.

What a vile pair Courtney and Brett!

[haroot_azarian · 2 August 2021]

I found it absolutely disgusting how someone could do what Courtney did to her best friend, sleeping with Jane's boyfriend! And 17 years later she felt no shame not even when she found out that Laurel was Jane and Brett's daughter. And at the end of the movie she says to Laurel "he's a good guy you know. I think he just might be the love of my life." So yeah I totally hated Courtney and Brett! Terrible story line!

An Endless Loop

[lavatch · 5/10 · 16 December 2019]

Nature abhors a vacuum. That apparently is the reason that the writer Courtney Snow has returned to her prep school, the Douglas Academy, accepting a post as artist in residence. But she doesn't do much teaching in the course of the film. Rather, she has returned home to put closure on ghosts from the past.

The film awkwardly juggles scenes in the present with flashbacks that recall the shocking death by an apparent suicide by student Jane Halloran. The tragic occurrence took place in the room at the end of the all in the McEvoy dormitory. Of course, the site will be the residence of Courtney as she begins her new job. Much of the film seemed overly "talky" without enough action to sustain the viewer's interest.

A young student named Laurel resides in the fateful room where Jane died. Laurel is visited by impressions of Jane, which leads to a dark story of deceit and murder. The oily rector may hold the secrets as to why Jane was "ripped out of this world against her will." Jane's journal holds the documentary evidence related to a little baby that will tie the mysterious strands together. Who will find the "lost" journal?

An essential metaphor raised in the film is the "endless loop" that is bringing back the secrets of the past. Brett, the son of the smooth-talking rector, may hold one of the key pieces in the puzzle about the lineage of little Laurie. In the end, the film conveys the truth that "these walls can talk" in the McEvoy dormitory of the Douglas Academy Boarding School.

Nightmare Alley

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 20 April 2012]

***SPOILERS**** Having her best friend Jane Halloran, Jacquine Macinnes Wood, kill herself 17 years earlier while attending Douglas Boarding School Courtney Snow, Sara Rue at 35 & Amber Borycki at 19, became obsessed with her and later wrote a best selling novel about Jane. It was the success of Courtney's novel that later brought Jane back to life to haunt her over the circumstances of her suicide. Getting a teaching job at her Alma Motta the Douglas Bording School one of Countrey students turned out to be 18 year old Laura McAvory, also played by Miss. Wood, who not only is the spitting image of Jane but knows things about her as well as Courtnety that only Countrey knows about! Even more strange Laura insisted to be assigned the very room where Jane killed herself!

The film gets a bit confusing in it switching back and forth in time in trying to piece together what happened back then when both Courtney and Janes were students at Douglas and the present in Courtney coming to grips to what was the real reason behind Jane's tragic death; If in fact it was a suicide. It takes a while to unravel but the missing piece of the puzzle to all this is Jane's boyfriend back at Douglas Bratt Ramsey, Kevin Smith at 35 and Sabastian Secki at 18, who also happened to be the son of Douglas Bording School's Dean of Admissions Mr. Ian Ramsey played by Duncan Regehr.

It seemed that Bartt was cheating behind Jane's back with non other then her best friend Courtney Snow! This could be the reason that Courtney became so obsessed with Jane's killing herself feeling that she in some way was responsible for it! And what did young Laura have to do with all this! Why was she so much like the dead Jane Hallonan? The only person who knew the truth Ian Ramsey wasn't talking but was determined to keep all that secret even if he has to resort to murder to do it!

***SPOILERS*** Modern ghost story without any ghosts, in spirit or in the flesh, but with something that was left behind and now, some 17 later,came back to hunt those responsible for Jane's death. The ending isn't all that surprising in that you saw it coming from as much as 10 miles away. Yet it still was effective in trying all he loose ends together in this very confusing and a times disjointed movie!

A journey into a guilt-ridden writer's mind turns out to be voyage into the paranormal.

[ovaga1 · 10/10 · 20 July 2008]

A true gem on Lifetime! Thank God it was promoted by the network or it might have been missed. Why are there more such well crafted genre films, instead of the low budget looking schlock that passes for entertainment on Lifetime? We want more such intelligent thrillers.Sarah Rue was brilliant, convincing. Jaqueline McIness has star potential- a real find. All aspects of the film, the writing, acting, lighting,cinematography, direction was first rate. What could have been a confusing pretentious mess with flash backs was a completely engrossing experience. Bravo to all! Can't wait to see it again! A classy picture. An unexpected twist. A psycho thriller in true Hitchock tradition.