House at the End of the Street
| release date | September 21 2012 |
| studio | Relativity Media |
| director | Mark Tonderai |
| writer | Jonathan Mostow, David Loucka |
| starring | Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot, Elisabeth Shue |
| rating | PG13 |
| tagline | Fear reaches out... for the girl next door |
| site | facebook.com/HouseAtTheEnd |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
| trailer 2 | Trailer #2 |
| trailer 3 | Trailer #3 |
2 Comments
Comment: Sure the film is derivative and milks a formula, but there are exciting new twists and turns down this dark road. The new girl with a single mom moves into a remote locale. Of course she’s going to fall for the guy next door who is such a loner, but who exhibits a sensitivity none of the other local kids share. So what if he lives (alone?) in the house in which his parent were murdered.
This film benefits from two charismatic leads (Jennifer Lawrence and newcomer Max Therriot). Firm support too from seasoned adults Elizabeth Shue and Gil Gerard. The film is atmospheric, cleverly plotted, and has a sure feeling for suspense. The setting is a knockout and the film is well produced. This is a good one… disregard the jaded critics behind the screen. The House at the End of the Street may just be calling you.
SO MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE! Now the first half of the movie movies a little slow but it’s still interesting and the whole film is beautifully shot! I was thinking this was a very plain straight forward horror film. But then came the TWIST! The twist is amazing and wonderfully twisted. IT MAKES THE MOVIE. The finale of the movie is GREAT, and filled with action. The film could have had more blood but its still a great movie. Jennifer Lawrence is a fantastic actress and does an amazing job. I didn’t have a lot of faith in this movie but it was a WONDERFUL SURPRISE! Definitely one movie ill be buying!
It’s hard to make a movie genuinely scary while appealing to the entire horror community. Today’s filmgoers either crave the gore and violence of torture porn, or the subtlety and jump scares of a thriller. When directors set out to make a film to please both sides of the fence, they often find themselves walking a very thin line. That line is where PG-13 horror movies like “House at the End of the Street” find their home.
The film has a plot we’ve seen played out in every film from John Carpenter’s “Halloween” to the more recent “Silent House.” Jennifer Lawrence plays Elissa, a teenager who moves from Chicago to a small rural town with her recently divorced mother. Thinking they’ve found the quaint little home of their dreams, they soon learn that years earlier, in the house next door, a young girl murdered her parents and drowned in a nearby dam, leaving only her brother, Ryan (Max Thieriot) who now lives in alone in his family’s former home. Elissa strikes up a friendship with her mysterious neighbor, but soon discovers that things are not what they seem in this peaceful town.
“House at the End of the Street” begins with two brutal off-screen murders, and for the next 40 minutes the audience is presented with what appears to be a plot that can’t decide if it’s a horror flick or a drama. Scenes of violence are sprinkled throughout a series of high-tension moments between Elissa and her mother, Ryan and Elissa, and a seemingly endless population of snotty, unbearable side characters, including several jocks who apparently walked out of a magazine and onto the film set, and an army of torch-and-pitchfork townspeople.
However, if viewers can look past the seemingly scattered storyline long enough to get to the last 30 minutes, the film pays off tenfold with a finale chock full of twists and shocks that will leave them speechless, and maybe scratching their heads.
House at the End of the Street works hard to present characters that are believable, and in that respect, it succeeds. The film’s stars, particularly Lawrence and Thieriot, manage to portray two different horror stereotypes – strong, independent female heroine and misunderstood, outcast loner – without coming across as cheesy. Thieriot, who many viewers will recognize as the baby-faced boy from “Catch that Kid,” commands the attention every time his face is on screen, somehow being creepy and drawing sympathy at the same time.
Overall, “House at the End of the Street” presents a nice throwback to the classic thriller. It doesn’t depend on violence and sex scenes to drive it, but instead relies on strong acting and a plot that, while perhaps not original, is still worth seeing.
+ Well acted
○ More of a drama than a horror film
- Absolutely misleading opening that makes the rest of the story completely unbelievable
Comment
Totally misleading. While the strong acting is a plus, I found that my attention wandered off quite a bit for the majority of the film.
Initially, I had thought that the snotty neighbors and their kids would wind up getting killed off as revenge, so it was surprising when they got pushed off to the side quite often.
That being said, I don’t mind that the film was more focused on less gore, and more suspense. I had just hoped for a bit of better pacing.