House at the End of the Street Review

A poorly produced Horror in which would have been a straight to DVD release if it weren’t for rising star Jennifer Lawrence’s appearance. The Hunger Games star is somewhat going the wrong direction for career success, starring in a cheesy and unsuspenseful thrill ride that leaves you wanting any sort of well structured set piece. Had the title been any what relevant to the film (said “street” never came up) , and the editing and shot selection didn’t come across as amateurish, then just perhaps this could have been an average Horror flick.

Using a quote “Deeply Scary with an Awesome Twist” as promotion will put anyone’s mind in doubt to the quality of a film. House at the End of the Street’s trailer was attention grabbing and held slight promise. The final result? Miserable to say the least…

It begins with a mother and daughter moving into a new neighbourhood next to a house that was surrounded with the story of a girl killing her own parents, which we see in the film’s prologue. From here, moody girl Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) becomes interested in Ryan, elder brother to killer girl, spiralling into mysterious events and two dimensional acting. Max Thieriot has as much emotion as ‘Napoleon Dynamite’s’ Pedro, therefore the chemistry between himself and Jennifer Lawrence is extremely manufactured and in some cases unbearable to watch.

I am struggling to bring any positives to the table. As mentioned, the plot had a lot of potential, but through poor editing choices the suspense was missing. Cheap horror tricks were often used to get the audience jumping in a desperate attempt to class it in such genre. House at the End of the Street has seriously missed the mark and stands no chance of a sequel. With ‘Sinister’ and ‘Paranormal Activity 4′ around the corner, scare-thirsty film fans should sit this one out.