I’ll leave it to film historians to trace the evolution of the “haunted house” cinematic genre. I know it goes back at least as far as 1932, and it probably predates that period.

Like other horror tropes, “haunted house” movies seem unlikely to ever go anywhere. We get another example via 2019’s Girl on the Third Floor.

Along with his wife Liz (Trieste Kelly Dunn), Don Koch (Phil Brooks) purchases a dilapidated old Victorian house. While the home clearly requires massive rehab, Don convinces Liz he can handle the work himself.

As it happens, Don can’t handle the job, though not solely due to structural challenges. In addition, the building comes with supernatural concerns that threaten Don and his family.

Apparently Brooks enjoyed a successful WWE wrestling career under the moniker “CM Punk”. I don’t know about that, but he does look like the love child of Jon Hamm and Bruce Campbell, so that counts for something I guess.

Actually, Brooks kind of sounds like Campbell as well. Given the fact that Campbell’s main claim to fame comes from his own haunted house franchise, I find it hard to view this as a coincidence.

Not that I view Floor as a rip-off of Evil Dead. Sure, both share the basic “haunted house” conceit, but they follow their stories in different ways.

Mostly. Dead embraces manic insanity pretty early in its narrative, whereas Floor largely sticks with creepy atmosphere for its first two acts.

Sure, we find obvious hints that something weird exists in the house. In addition, Sarah Yates (Sarah Brooks) – the local hottie with whom Don enjoys a night of extramarital passion – gives off an odd vibe right from the start.

Still, the film manages to keep its supernatural tone subdued for the opening hour or so. Eventually it goes wilder and gorier, which opens us to Evil Dead connections, but Floor never enters “carbon copy” territory, and it offers some reflections of The Shining as well.

Maybe Floor would work better if it simply ripped off the Sam Raimi classic. As it stands, the movie never finds traction and tends to offer a slow, not especially exciting tale.

Much of this stems from its reluctance to decide what horror genre it wants to embrace. Does Floor prefer a spooky vibe or the wild gore of Raimi’s work?

Both – and neither, really, as the indecision makes Floor inconsistent and without much impact. There’s just not a lot of substance here, and the film can’t find a real groove.

I do appreciate the movie’s general refusal to embrace the cliché jump scares that pervade the genre. At times, Floor shows signs that it can bring some energy to a well-worn genre.

However, it never achieves these goals. Nothing hear ever devolves to the level of awfulness, but the end result feels passable at best.

Girl on the Third Floor appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a pretty good presentation.

As expected, sharpness worked well. The occasional soft wide shot materialized, but most of the episodes appeared accurate and distinctive.

No signs of moiré effects or jaggies occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source defects failed to mar the proceedings.

Like most genre flicks, Floor went for a sense of teal and orange, with an emphasis on the former. The colors seemed well-rendered for the material.

Blacks came across as deep and dense, while low-light shots portrayed a good feeling of clarity. Overall, the film offered appealing visuals.

I thought the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack opened up in a lively manner. With a consistent mix of action and supernatural material, the audio allowed for a lot of involving sequences. The film used the soundfield to broaden in a vivid way that used all the channels to put the viewer inside the gory action.

Audio quality also satisfied, with speech that seemed natural and concise. Music boasted nice range and clarity as well.

Effects added zing to the proceedings, as those elements appeared accurate and dynamic. The audio fleshed out the shows in a pleasing manner.

Only one major extra appears here: an audio commentary from writer/director Travis Stevens. He provides a running, screen-specific look at story and characters, budgetary issues, sets and locations, cast and performances, various effects, and related domains.

Don’t expect a particularly compelling commentary, as Stevens brings a fairly limp track. While he gives us a decent array of insights, he also goes AWOL a little too often, and the whole discussion feels somewhat flat. It’s not a terrible commentary but it fails to really engage.

The disc opens with ads for Bliss, Darlin’ and In the Trap. We also find two trailers for Floor.

As another entry in the oft-visited haunted house genre, Girl on the Third Floor struggles to find its way. While it occasionally shows signs of life, too much of the movie feels meandering and unconvincing. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio as well as a commentary. Though not a bad movie, Floor seems mediocre at best.