House at the End of the Street (2012) - what sounds like a prime slice of 70's exploitation is a rather unremarkable horror-thriller. Jennifer Lawrence moves into a new house with her mother which is on the same street as a house where a deranged young girl murdered her parents years before. Only the brother has survived and lives at the house alone, harbouring a terrible secret. The film tries to pull off a couple of twists which don't work at all; the first is fairly obvious to anyone paying attention and by the end of the film you realise you're left with some glaring plot holes unless another twist is implemented, which it promptly is in the last scene. There's little atmosphere or scares and the scenes with Lawrence playing guitar seem to only be there to guarantee her a record contract. It's all perfectly unremarkable yet diverting enough but if it wasn't for the lead whose star seems to be on the ascend due to her role in The Hunger Games franchise this would have come out straight-to-dvd.
Last edited by PaulD; 6th January 2013 at 07:50 AM.
|