Review of House of Bodies (2013) by Liam C — 28 Oct 2014

This is a pretty old school kind of movie, working with a small budget probably didn't help matters but House of Bodies is pretty interesting and has some really unique elements and thankfully doesn't become a lazy slasher flick like one could assume from the name.

I think the story here is quite creative, it doesn't really tell you what's going on at first and tricks the audience for a little bit but when things started to get going in the house, I really liked what was happening, in and outside the house. The outside story did its job of giving us the backstory to the house.

The actors were pretty good too, unfortunately, even though I can't say I didn't expect it, Howard, Latifah and Fonda aren't really in it much at all. It isn't really their story but it certainly is strange, considering that Latifah produced it as well. Fonda does a good job, you could tell what role he played just by seeing his name, villains always gotta have that kind of name and just look at his face on the poster. Howard and Latifah do good too but aren't in it a lot, especially Latifah; they honestly felt a little distracting in parts. The younger actors are good too, especially Alexz Johnson and Harry Zittel which is probably due to the fact they have the most development. One of the characters has a disability and it isn't used for any cheap gimmick, the character just has it and it fits into the story well and I actually really cared about their relationship, it was well written, felt very natural and I really cared about these two and what happened to them. The only bad actor was the mother on the phone, she was literally just reading her lines off the page and really didn't seem to care but it's not like it matters.

I like the soundtrack in the movie, even if sometimes it did seem out of place and after awhile it did play too much. It's also good that the movie doesn't have anyone get nude for some reason, while there is someone who disrobes, it didn't feel out of place and you don't see anything that just feels shoehorned in like a horror cliche - even if some characters do do some stupid things, you'll know them when you see them. While Johnson and Zittel's characters are developed, in turn, we don't learn much about the other characters, you still feel bad for them when horrible things happen because you wouldn't want it to happen to anyone but it doesn't have the same impact as it would for the other two, obviously. The ending of the movie was quite abrupt and odd.

House of Bodies is a pretty good small budget movie, it has some well written characters and a really unique set up and I enjoyed it for what it was. It's a little, small budget movie and I'm judging it for what it is. This website says it's a horror, imdb doesn't, well, whatever it is, it's a short movie that has a fine pace, a good cast and does a good job at what it set out to do.