Paintings capturing the spirit of people are one of oldest haunted stories. And then add rituals to the mix to the plot and you got yourself an overt familiar horror story. Also, if those tropes aren’t enough there are, old forgotten rich relative died and left the mansion to bewildered distant family, blame the kid on the unexplained happenings in the house, and the old timey person comes in to give back story exposition.   “The Painted” directed and written by Sasha Sibley (The Box) isn’t here to challenge or present anything new to advance the cause of horror which is probably why the story. There really isn’t anything new here other than seeing CGI liquid paint. 

For the life of me I still don’t why the story takes place in the sixties, especially the late sixties and it still doesn’t explain why. The only real reason I can think of is to show off the cars of that time. 

There is great care with the production and set. The cast are doing well for what they are given, but what I feel hurts the most of the film is the stale, unimaginative camera work and the generic music score. Three cord ominous forgettable melodies aren’t enhancing anything as well. 

The Painted wants to hit on all those friendly notes of a horror without the gore, or cringe but rely on the effects of setting and mood, it’s so basically made that nothing really emerges from the story even when characters literally do from paintings in the film! Overall the film doesn’t have a signature feature to hang from, and not worth framing.