It's a genre so well-trodden that it means to keep entertaining it's audience, many of them have taken the post-modern route. We are so familiar with horror films as an audience, that it would be unbelievable for the characters we see on screen to not be aware of the horror cliches either.
Unfortunately, House at the End of the Street plays it's characters so blandly that they fall for almost all horror cliches going.
The film follows a young Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) who moves into a new countryside home with her Mother, Sarah (Elisabeth Shue). Fortunately for them, the house was so cheap because the house next door saw a terrible crime - a whole family was murdered by their young daughter, Carrie-Ann (Eva Link). However, they soon learn from their bitchy neighbours that the house isn't as empty as they thought it was, because the only surviving member of the family, Ryan (Max Thierot) decides to live a reclusive lifestyle on his own in the family home. As the audience, we quickly realise that Ryan's quiet life isn't as peaceful as he makes it out to be, but unfortunately it takes the characters a lot longer to work this out. What follows is a game of who to trust, and Elissa wants to befriend Ryan, Sarah doesn't want her daughter anywhere near him and the rest of the residents want Ryan to leave their town for good.
Now, as I've already mentioned, the main problem with The House at the End of the Street is that it's a film that feels really outdated. Characters will readily go and investigate a strange noise or go and investigate a dark basement on their own, with no real fear for their life. It's pretty standard horror fare stuff, that even someone who isn't the least bit interested in horror films will understand is a bad idea, yet the characters in this film don't even make a passing mention to it. The most glaring example I can think of is when one of the many times that Elissa is home alone at night and she steps outside to investigate a strange noise (instead of barricading herself inside), only for a friend from school to sneak up behind and "scare the piss" out of her. In fact, it's one of the only few times that the film tries to successfully build tension, yet it's completely blown away by a shockingly cliched fright.
It wouldn't be so bad if the underwritten characters were being driven by decent performances, but it felt like every actor was in this film for the pay-check. I was particularly disappointed in Jennifer Lawrence and her poor decision to star in this film. Fresh off the back of The Hunger Games, I'm sure that she had offers coming in all the time, but I think she need to learn that a bad script cannot be changed into a good film. She didn't really add anything to her paper-thin character - Elissa wants to help Ryan... why? Well, we're never really told except for her Mother saying that she likes to try and change people. The performance from Elisabeth Shue also wasn't particularly inspiring. She had a chance with a brilliantly awkward scene, which involved the Mother vocally airing her distrust for Ryan and wanting him to stay away from her daughter, but instead she plays the scene quietly and timidly.
Say what you will about horror films - and many say that they are predictable - but House at the End of the Street tries to challenge the predictability of horror film narratives. It doesn't play so much of a whodunit, but more of a whydunit. It's obvious from the very beginning as to who the culprit is, but the second half of the film tries to tease the audience with the motive behind their actions. While it's not a completely original twist (many people have made comparisons to Psycho and the lesser-known Sleepaway Camp) but I must admit that it caught me out until near the end - I thought I had it all sussed out, but then it threw one last curveball.
However, unfortunately the choice in going for a whydunit means that the first half of the film feels a bit stale. It's not made explicitly obvious who the culprit is until about halfway through the film (even though it's painfully obvious) which means that it falls to the development of characters to try and keep it's audience's attention... but, it's like the most boring episode of the OC, ever. We have the seemingly nice boy, Tyler (Nolan Gerard Funk) who turns out to be a complete tool. There is also the grungey outcast girl, Jillian (Allie MacDonald) who can't handle her alcohol at the cool kids party. And of course, the quiet new girl with Elissa. They're like stereotype cut-outs of teen soap opera dramas and they're very very boring.
So, if you like your horror not very scary, with some weak teen drama in the mix, but with a pretty decent (but not original) twist to the story, then House at the End of the Street will be right up your... street. If not and you are a die-hard horror genre fan, I'd make a U-Turn and give this one a bit of a miss. (See what I did there?!)
** / *****
No comments:
Post a Comment