House at the End of the Street
★★
(2012)
It's safe to say that Jennifer Lawrence is some of the hottest property in Hollywood at the minute. Oscar Nominated and star of the surprisingly great blockbuster Hunger Games she's already shown her versatility and audience pulling power. This just released paint by numbers horror film maybe isn't what she needed at this point in her career, but considering it was shot back in 2010 and brought out last month, it'll probably do little to damage.
Elisa (Lawrence) has just moved to a leafy country suburb with her mother (Elizabeth Shue). Their house backs onto another, the scene of a grizzly murder and the home of a family's eldest creepy boy Ryan (Max Thieriot). Though the tragedy of Ryan's family is shown in the films introduction, the secrets of the house and Elisa's growing relationship against the wishes of her concerned mum with the young loner are director Mark Tonderai main focus. Along with what Ryan may be hiding in his basement.
Though Shue and Lawrence are strong as the women in peril, an aging Gill Bellows does little as the town sheriff and Thieriot's quiet creepiness doesn't ever send shivers down your spine. Some messy pacing and lack of imagination or smarts deny the film the chance to really get its hook in and although the mother daughter relationship isn't terribly observed the film gets bogged down in adding superficial character layers which mean nothing. "Hey, Elisa used to be in a band!", "Hey, her mother spent most of her high school years on her back, hence her protective nature, and cautious eye with regards to little Ryan".
Though it's an admirable (though ludicrous) stab at the character injection missing from most modern horror, the main downfall comes from its lack of focus in just being a horror film. Every time House at the End of the Street starts getting slightly interesting it constantly uses Ryan's hidden secret as a distraction rather than a scare and by the time Lawrence is forced into a ludicrously tight white singlet, the staple uniform for a beautiful teenage girl being chased through a forrest, the film has all but disappeared off the chart.
