| Home > Horror Reviews > Hollywood Horror > House |
| Rated: 0.00/5 | Votes: 1 | Views: 135 |Submitted: 04/07/09 |
|
HOUSE (2008)
House is director Robby Henson's second stab at conveying Christian values via the horror genre. The first was 2007's Thr3e, a good idea that was emasculated to the point of hilarity. I'll give credit to House for actually feeling like a real horror film, having gathered some decent genre talent and generating an appropriately freaky atmosphere. Unfortunately, when it comes to pushing his ulterior motives, Henson finds himself floundering in a sea of melodrama and cornball writing that undermines the very message he's trying to get across. Reynaldo Rosales and Heidi Dippold are the stars of this magical misery tour, playing Jack and Stephanie, a couple whose relationship is on the rocks. They're on their way to make a last-ditch effort to patch things up when the pair experiences a spot of car trouble in the backwoods of Alabama. Jack and Stephanie manage to find shelter at a hole-in-the-wall bed and breakfast, where they encounter another traveling couple (Julie Ann Emery and J.P. Davis), as well as the establishment's sinister owner (Leslie Easterbrook). But things take a turn for the malevolent when the guests discover that they've become the latest playthings for the Tin Man, a diabolical mastermind who issues a rather muderous edict. If he's supplied with one dead body by sunrise, he'll let the survivors walk away scot free; if not, hunting season is open for business. As the Tin Man begins his assault, it's up to Jack, Stephanie, and the others to make the decision of whether to succumb to their captor's will or fight to survive the most hellish night of their lives. There's a good idea buried somewhere within House, but I'll be damned if the filmmakers know where to dig. The entire concept is an unabashed Saw ripoff, but that doesn't mean there isn't the potential for something just as thought-provoking. Henson is definitely onto something, beginning the film in standard slash-and-stalk fashion before moving the story into more heady territory. As it turns out, the captives have just as much reason to fear one another as they do the Tin Man, for the guilt of their past sins is what the fiend uses to slowly turn them against one another. Such scenes awarded the film a certain depth, a challenging of one's moral code that I had hopes would propel the flick to horror's big leagues. But then the characters start talking, and the unsettling realization that things would become really cheesy, really fast sunk in faster than a VW on the Autobahn. It all comes down to a matter of House trying to be way more than it's capable of doing. The simpler the film would've been, the better; just take some nubile young victims, throw in a demented puppet master, and let the games begin. But in his efforts to chuck in everything but the kitchen sink (and I'm pretty sure I saw a few of those, too), Henson overcomplicates the story much more than it deserved to be. There's a whole "creepy hillbillies" angle with Easterbrook's character and her demented brood that amounts to a lot of useless clutter and actually makes things even more confusing. Henson's melodramatic streak also does more harm than good, chintzifying the few moments of intelligence he does turn up and making the production as a whole feel like a particularly ominous movie of the week. The acting hardly fares better; you either have newcomers like Dippold unconvincingly screeching their way to the ending credits or genre veterans like Bill Moseley grimacing at the camera, presumably with nothing but a paycheck on their minds. I wouldn't call House a completely lost cause; there are certainly some diggable elements, from the often effective camerawork to the intriguing core concept. But as ol' Jack Burton once said, it's all in the reflexes, and as ambitious as its objective may be, House is as slow to pick up on them as any other cut-rate chiller on the market. MY RATING: ** (out of ****) Reviewer: A.J. Hakari |
Search | Search the website
Use our search facility to trawl our wide range of content
Contest
Top Members
Username: ArsonCuff
Posts: 332
Username: misterhorror
Posts: 243
Username: terrortu
Posts: 228
Username: heatherwixson
Posts: 135
Username: DavidAsdkl
Posts: 71