Fear House (2008)

An Exercise In Nonsense

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This premise of this movie made it sound as if it had so much promise, but after about 5 minutes in I realised I was quite mistaken. This would have to be one of the worst haunted house movies I've ever seen and I've seen possibly hundreds in my time, and while the vast majority seem to follow a central theme and are quite derivative, Fear House was nothing more than a disorganised mess. I'm not even sure where to begin with this, the acting, the plot, the effects or the lack of direction and any acting ability. The story, (if you can call it that), seems to be about some kind of curse that lingers in the house brought on by something to do with an evil priest. After he murders everyone including his manservant, his spirit has to remain in the house for some reason and kill everyone who enters. It's not the most original story and it's one that's been doing the rounds throughout the history of film going back to the silent era; in this case however when the freaky goings on inside the house get uncomfortable for anyone, it's when you try to leave that the entity within uses your own fears against you in order to kill you, but no one really knows why and basically these movies like to portray death as some kind of maladjusted kid who gets off on killing ants with a magnifying glass. Just killing someone outright isn't good enough, they have to die in the most convoluted way possible. The movie opens with 2 teenagers entering what they think is just an abandoned house so they can make out with each other, but when the deceased manservant appears and orders them out, the guy gets killed by a coat rack and the girl dies when a large winch & pulley hook embeds itself into her lower jaw. The movie then fast forwards in time and we see a female author renting the house as she wants isolation to work on her new novel. Fast forward again 9 months later and several people including the authors brother, publicist, his assistant etc is trying to track her down and following them is the author's ex- husband and his new girlfriend in another car. Upon reaching the house they find the girl who now seems to be in some kind of disassociated state and the new arrivals start getting killed off in ridiculously complicated ways depending on their own fears. Although the ex-husbands death makes no sense unless he's afraid of wrought iron gates and/or electricity. The movie meanders from one stupid death to the next with nonsensical dialogue and non- acting in between and the ending is just too stupid for words. It turns out that the female author and her brother are related to the evil priest who started the ball rolling and once the brother dies the torch gets passed on to him so he can now suffer for eternity being trapped in the house killing all and sundry who enter. Overall the movie could've been really good had someone bothered to spend some actual money on this and hire people who can act and be directed properly. While the premise certainly isn't new, there was still enough source material from countless other movies to work with to produce a movie that would've slotted in well enough to at least be enjoyable and perhaps even quite funny but this garbage fails in all areas. I've had more genuine scares while waiting in line to renew my drivers licence. I bought this second hand for less than a $1 and I still feel ripped off. Treat this crap just like a disposable razor; see it once, if you feel you must, and throw it in the bin like I did lest some other hapless soul stumbles across it and suffers a fate of death by boredom.

"Fear House" is a typical and overall average haunted house effort.**SPOILERS**Going on a drive, friends Anthony Ballard, (Matthew Stiller) Fiona Bloom, (Olivia Price) Mortimer Gladstein, (Matthew Montgomery) Eva Tinski, (Meredith Barnett) Rhett, (Ryan Caldwell) and Suzette, (Kiersten Hall) arrive at a secluded house to fins his missing sister Samantha Ballard, (Aleece Jones) who had rented it to write her new book. Seeing something is wrong immediately, they soon learn that an evil spirit who died hundreds of years ago has taken over the house and preventing them from leaving, yet none of them believe the story. After they are each exposed to various situations around that house they all believe to be their individual worst nightmares come to life, they accept the story and try whatever they can to ensure that they stop the spirits' rampage and get out of the house alive.The Good News: This one had some rather good stuff to it at times. One of the main pluses here is the film manages to do a superb job of placing rational fears into the set-ups that they are just quite freaky at times when they land perfectly, which is the perfect solution to these situations. The first walk-through of the house, with the spider-filled fuse-box during the blackout and the cut on the hemophiliac, which leads to several more great gags including a hallucinatory spurting wound into an empty sink to fill it up with blood as well as a later bit of suspense with a falling can of nails, is quite creepy and starts it off nicely before building to the bigger ones later. Those are the best part of the film, mainly the upstairs segments as there's two really great moments. The first one, in the bathroom, features the ghostly father appearing to torment the victim before falling into a full-bathtub full of blood before a ghostly sister rises out, these alerting others and forcing a tense resuscitation effort. A later continuation, where they are sensually felt-up by a ghost hand before appearing behind them in a creepy face is quite nicely done, and mixes in some eroticism as well. The second big upstairs one, the other victim alone in the bedroom before the big reveal with the ghost in the room tying them to a chair before being rocked by flashing images, is a pretty nifty sequence and makes for a couple big moments. Other big suspenseful scenes occur in the basement, where the darkened-staircase-descending opening, along with the eerie voices in the distance, create a fantastic backdrop for the later action where the creatures found are perfectly chilling, the different chanting and dialogues engaged with the ghost-girl are a great trap for the zombies emerging to engage them from out-of-nowhere, and that's a fine moment. The wheelchair sequence later on is one of the film's most inventive scenes, where the crazed actions that are clearly-inhuman are just thrilling, the chasing around the house is creepy and the final payoff is spectacular. The first encounter throws some action into the proceedings with its dog-attack in the car followed by the electrical-wiring shock, and the back-story flashback does the same with regard to its storytelling actions. The finale is one of the creepiest parts to this, with the blowing wind, the attacks by the house and the others, and the final fates are just great. The last plus to this is the kills, which are quite good, from a decapitation, a body burnt to a crisp, multiple impaling and a lynching. These here are the film's good parts.The Bad News: This one had some pretty big problems to it that did hinder it somewhat. One of the biggest issues with this one is the fact that there are just not a whole lot of scenes that make much sense in the overall scope of the film. The purpose of the fire-taunting scene in particular is the biggest one, which is just outright confusing and is really questionable since there's so many questions around it. From the purpose of figuring out her fear, it would've been a lot easier to logically figure that out rather than in a way that would burn the entire house down and kill them all inside as the fear could've easily paralyzed them to the point of inactivity, and with the others upstairs at the time, it's a potentially deadly situation that comes across more as confusing than anything. Even the point of the ghost appearing in the bathtub during that flashback is quite strange, since that's the obvious route to go here, so setting it up as such with such a quick-cut scene that fails to generate its scare is a little strange and quite problematic. Other problems come from the film's rather slow pace, since it's all based on the fears materializing to generate the scares so there's a long stretch where the house does nothing and there's no supernatural activity at all during those scenes, leaving a lot of time without a whole lot going on and that's something which can drag the film out during the middle portion. The film's last flaws are its wraparounds, which are just plain weird. The opening ambush is a little strange in that there's no scares that come, despite the activities performed, because the cheesy effects give so much away that it's impossible to take them seriously, and the finale is just hampered by so much questionable actions that you leave the film at the very end more confused than anything, the wrong way to do so. These here are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: While not a stand-out effort in the genre, this one has enough good parts that make it decent even though there's not a whole lot out there to really wow most. Recommended to haunted-house enthusiasts, low-budget connoisseurs or those interested, while those who aren't should heed caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity and Graphic Language

After reclusive writer Samantha Ballard hasn't gotten in touch with her brother Anthony in months, he along with her publisher, his assistant, and the previous home-owners daughter all decide to go up to the secluded house that she had recently bought. But the house, as always is the case in these type of movies, is haunted and they, along with Sam's husband and his girl whom haven't been invited, appear to be in for one hell of a night. And the viewer is in for one hell of a night of...of utter boredom. I'm really sorry but this movie just didn't really do it for. Trust me, I've since worse low-budget horror films than this one. A lot worse...by far. But at the same time the story didn't snap or crackle for me (nor did it pop, by the way). The deaths were too quasi-laughable and didn't really fit into the tone the film was trying to have. And talking of the acting caliber, well that's like shooting fish in a barrel, so I'll digress.My Grade: D+Eye Candy: Meredith Barnett gets topless brieflyDVD Extras: Commentary with Director Micheal Morris, actress Alecee Jones & actor Matthew Stiller; just under 3 minutes of outtakes; Actor rehearsal; and the promo trailer for this film

I have seen a lot of bad movies, but this must be the worst. The special effects (if you can call them special effects) are terrible. I can't believe this is a movie made in 2008. When you see it you'll think it is made in 1970 or so. How low budget can you go. To bad for the wasted time...Never the less, I watched the movie completely since I hadn't anything else to do. Some parts of this movie is even humoristic. Some actors can use some more acting lessons. The plot however isn't that bad and it does get a bit better towards the end of the movie. So, in conclusion, the story ain't that bad, but the effect are in the style of jaws 1, you know, when the shark breaks trough the glass, it goes in frames, same here...