HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET – Review

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET is directed by Mark Tonderai, his first theatrically released film, and is obviously plagued by all the mistakes of a beginning filmmaker who has watched a lot of horror movies but hasn’t figured out the key ingredients in making a good one. It was written by David Loucka, who also wrote DREAM HOUSE which is about a family who moves into a house where murders took place.

The beginning of the film depicts the killing of the Jacobson parents by their young daughter, Carrie Anne, which does get the picture off to a chilling start. However, as the present-day story gets going, sorry attempts at jump scares are tossed in out of fear that viewers won’t be able to sit still for any kind of build. For reasons unknown, Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mom Sarah (Elizabeth Shue) had to leave Chicago for a house in small-town Woodshire, PA , as they couldn’t pass up the low rent even though the price derives from its location across from a house where a girl murdered her parents with rumors that she still lives in the woods. Ryan (Max Theriot), Carrie Anne’s brother, is the town loner who still lives in the house where his parents were killed and avoids the locals who like to mock and bully him.

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET obviously tries to make a modern thriller in the vein of PSYCHO and is impossible to miss the references and borrowed ideas but not at all well done. Jennifer Lawrence is a remarkable actress that keeps this picture from complete disaster and tries to create an actual character instead of being a scream queen that so many lesser known actresses would rely on in film’s like this and is by far the best thing about this movie. Now to be fair, Shue certainly isn’t bad here by any means, just underutilized. As for Theriot, he’s decent for a character that’s inconsistent.

With all this said, I’d recommend skipping this film. Is it all bad, no, it does have it’s heart and tries to be something more than it is but it just fails to keep you enthralled in the suspense of whatever it is they were trying to accomplish.

1.5 of 5 Stars