House at the End of the Street (2012) - Film Review
Director: Mark Tonderai
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Max Theiriot, Elisabeth Shue, Gil Bellows, Eva Link MPAA Rating: Rated PG13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, thematic elements, language, some teen partying and brief drug material
A mother and daughter move to a new town and find themselves living next door to
a house where a young girl murdered her parents. When the daughter befriends the
surviving son, she learns the story is far from over.
"House at the End of the Street", basically the only movie that my theater was playing that was worth seeing. Going into this film I didn't have a lot of hope in it, it seemed pretty average along horror films, but Jennifer Lawrence is pretty hot so that was cool I guess. After seeing the film I have to say while I wasn't disappointed in it, it still was far from perfect.
Like I said the film looked pretty generic from the trailers and TV spots and it did surprise that the story was different from the norm we get from this genre but its the point of view the story took from that really derailed the story. Jennifer Lawrence's character takes main stage in the film and a lot of the film focused on her but its her counterpart played by Max Theiriot that had the interesting story. I believe if the film would have focused on more of him and his character the film would have been a lot better. I don't have a problem with Jennifer Lawrence its just her character didn't get much to work with here. Her character is given hints of a backstory but none of the moments between her and her mother ever resonate and just come off as sad attempts to hit us with any reason to care for the characters. Really all of the supporting characters are basically used for horror movie cliches, you get the best friend whose popular but doesn't really like those people, the douche bag rich kid who is rude to women, and the overprotected cop that always seems to be lurking around. Sticking these characters into clihed roles really just puts them in there to serve filler into the plot instead of getting material to stand on their own. The directing of this film comes off very generic in the terms of pacing and scares. A horror movie is usually judged by the amounts of scares and tense moments the director can portray, but I can honestly count maybe one or two times that I felt a moment of tense and they were too far between. All the scenes have been done before and its hard to judge a movie on films of the past, but when the cliches come out so much in all horror films you cant help but become numb to the scenes. There is one thing this film did right in the entire film and that's the twist in the plot. I'm not gonna get spoiler-filled on here but i'm just gonna say that the final grade this film gets is based soley on the twist this film gives. The twist comes directly out of left field but it fit in so well that I couldn't help but be excited by it. It breathes a much needed life into the film and helps move the film alone a lot better in the last act to give the film a decent ending. I know this review seems like I was really rough on the film, but its so hard to see a film like this when horror films use to shock and scare us, not leave us unmoved and staring at our watches. With the talent involved and the story elements that were showcased in this film, it could have a been a lot better. The film ends up becoming bland and rigorous in the end and this is a film that is better just skipping in the end. You know the film is destined for failure when grown men in the crowd boo the film at the end. Thanks for reading: If you want you can follow me on twitter @thecriticspot facebook: thecritics spotlight
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