Review of House at the End of the Street (2012) by Alex M — 18 Nov 2014

Had I not been watching this movie with a group of a dozen people making snarky remarks the entire time, I probably would have turned off House at the End of the Street within fifteen to twenty minutes.

I don't really consider this movie a horror movie; besides three or four jump scares in the movie (which you can tell are coming EVERY time), there's nothing that creepy about House at the End of the Street.

But it's not the fact that this movie isn't scary that drags it down; it's the messy plot, bad dialogue, and the utterly unrealistic situations these characters end up in. First of all, the relationship between Elissa and her mom is almost annoying, and isn't really developed at all throughout the movie.

Also, Elissa and Ryan's relationship is completely uninteresting as well - they kind of just talk about random stuff for three days (most of this stuff basically just services the plot), then make out one night.

Also, Elissa's High School friends are not only more annoying characters, but also unrealistic and unnecessarily violent ones. Also, Ryan, despite being kind of a scrawny guy, is incredibly strong in the movie - "accidentally" cracking someone's neck, getting through a trap door with a freaking washing machine on top of it, picking up characters like they're a sack of potatoes, etc.

I could go on and list the number of illogical and stupid things in this story (don't get me started on the script - some of the dialogue in scenes are painful to listen to), but suffice it to say that the script is riddled with a lot of problems.

So what works in this movie? ...not a lot. Jennifer Lawrence is great, despite the awful dialogue she's given, and there are a couple good twists and scares in the movie. But that still doesn't really excuse the number of plot holes and cliches that this movie contains.