Also known as “movie at the bottom of the barrel”
Saw a trailer for this one on another Blu-Ray and suddenly remembered that I had a copy of it sitting on my shelf. Watched it yesterday afternoon and found it be a fairly predictable little horror thriller with one, really didn’t-see-it-coming plot twist at the very end of the film.
Mother Elisabeth Shue and daughter Jennifer Lawrence move into a house in a secluded neighborhood. The house next door is supposed to be empty, the scene of a multiple homicide several years ago in which the family’s daughter murdered her parents. Her brother, not at home at the time, eventually returns and takes up residence in the house.
He strikes up a tentative romance with Lawrence, but we know the dreadful secret he’s keeping in the house. His sister the murderer is being kept under lock and key in the basement where she’s been since the night of the murders. Big brother is trying to keep his crazy sister from going on another rampage, but it turns out there’s much more going on than that.
The script is fairly predictable, but I will give props to the very final shot which upends everything we’ve seen so far.
At one point in her career, Shue would have played the plucky teenager part that goes to Lawrence. She’s matured into “mom” roles. Lawrence, with cheeks big enough to give a chipmunk a run for the acorns, is good in a physically demanding role. But it’s all pretty standard, routine stuff with multiple jump scares and “gotchas”.
HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET, like so many low budget horror films of the 2000s, was shot in Canada where film production costs are lower. It’s not cheap looking but it’s not lavish either.
Worth seeing only if you are either a die-hard horror film fan or a fan of the leading ladies.
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