House at the End of the Street (2012)

I am not much of a fan of these PG-13 diet horror films. The target audience is evident when you watch films like this. Teenage kids going to the movies without parental guidance, looking to get handsy with one another while the lights are out and a "scary" movie is playing. We have all done it. However my generation was watching films like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legends, and other 90's fair. Teen movies now days feel watered down, and safe. Where's the thrill? All I can see are jump scares.

House at the End of the Street (HATEOTS) is precisely why mainstream horror films are starting to decline. The stories are all the same, the thrills are made be sound, and the efforts seem rather lackluster. To make this brief I did not enjoy HATEOTS. I found it very slow and awkward. I knew going into it that it did very well in the box office, and nailed its target demographic. However seasoned horror fans were less than stoked on it, and most voiced their frustrations openly.

Basically the film is about Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) a teenage girl who moves to a small town from the Windy City. She make friends with Ryan (Max Thieriot) her next door neighbor who still lives in the house his parents where killed in. Things get strange and Elissa is faced with a terrible situation.

The only 3 good qualities of this film are Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot, and the plot twist at the end, which wasn't even that good. I respect what the writers tried to do, but watering down a potentially good story to sell to kids is not what horror is about. Horror is intended to scare, thrill, and evoke terror in the audience. I did not get any of that. As I said Jennifer and Max did a great job, they are both very talented actors and I enjoyed watching them interact with each other. The overall film is just lacking that true grit of horror.

The film is what it is. There are few goods and a whole lot of bads. The film was also filmed in 2010, and was just released at the tail end of 2012. My guess is that the studio released it to capitalize on the success of the lovely & talented Miss Lawrence. All and all its not a terrible way to kill some time, however I'd have your phone handy to relieve boredom. GLP gives this effort 2 out of 5 stabs for Jennifer and Max's performance only. The film has been released on Blu-Ray and DVD, and is also available on demand everywhere. View the trailer below.

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