Predictable, hell-bent on keeping tired tropes alive, and funny when it shouldn’t be, House at the End of the Street is a horror-thriller that never manages to be horrific or thrilling. In its confusion, it ultimately loses its way toward becoming a good movie in either genre.
Based on the title’s haven’t we already seen this before? quality, it seems possible going in that House could’ve been a self-aware kind of flick — the kind of post-Scream/The Cabin in the Woods film in which director Mark Tonderai knew he was celebrating a genre and nothing more. But, despite a few clichéd moments that are fun even though they (presumably) weren’t intended to be, Tonderai’s movie takes itself seriously, making it hard for the audience to do so.
The set-up of the PG-13-rated movie, out today, is pretty self-evident. A one-time groupie mom (Elisabeth Shue) and her teenage daughter Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) move from Chicago to a new house in a quiet wooded area of … Pennsylvania, maybe? Wherever it is, the place is a bargain because — Go figure! — the family next door was murdered by their daughter four years earlier. (Hey, it happens.) The movie’s title also would imply that perhaps the House is haunted or some creepy demon is lurking below the floorboards, but that’s not the case either. The only thing that’s creepy is the slain family’s surviving son Ryan (Max Thieriot).
Max Thieriot plays the quiet, creepy boy next door in House at the End of the Street.
Photos courtesy Relativity Media(Spoiler alert: Minor plot points to follow.)
Naturally, Elissa, who’s edgy and plays guitar and stuff, is intrigued by Ryan. And, because new babes in town always go against their mother’s wishes and chase reclusive guys with weird sister issues, she starts hanging out with him. Of course this turns out to be a bad idea and of course Ryan might be keeping his (presumed dead) sister in a cellar and of course Elissa spends the rest of the film discovering maybe he’s not such a great guy after all.
Still, there’s one hell of a motivation to see House at the End of the Street: Jennifer Lawrence. There’s more to the story than that, obviously, but in the interest of minimizing the spoilers and/or not stating the obvious, we’ll stop there. Suffice to say that things go sideways, then there’s a twist that’s kind of similar to that of a classic film and then it’s over.
That’s not to say House isn’t without some fun. There are a few genuine jump-in-your-seat moments, and a few (somewhat) surprising turns. But they’re far outweighed by the obviousness of things like the Bumbling Cop (Gil Bellows) and moments where it’s nearly impossible not to shout, “Yes, you should definitely go into the creepy basement of Murder House!” or “WTF? Was that a MySpace page?” (Yes, Elissa has what appears to be a MySpace page, and an iPhone 3G, and an iPad, which combined feel anachronistic for some reason.)
Still there’s one hell of a motivation to see House at the End of the Street: Jennifer Lawrence.
The actress — at 22, already nominated for an Oscar and currently the world’s leading purveyor of, well, whatever she needs to sell — seems able to will a real person into existence with Elissa, even when she’s saying things like, “Is that Mr. and Mrs. Dead People’s house?” She manages to draw blood from a stone with nearly every line no matter how awkward, and unlike her more intense work in The Hunger Games, Winter’s Bone and X-Men: First Class, she gets a little room early on in House to put her sarcastic comedic timing to good use. (Sometimes you almost wonder if she’s just having fun with the material she’s been given and hopes you’re in on the joke.) Her dry wit is a skill that looks like it’ll be on prominent display in her upcoming role in Silver Linings Playbook, which is already getting Oscar talk and if nothing else her turn here will tide us all over until Playbook hits theaters in November.
But Lawrence, for all of her talents, can’t carry House by herself or help it rise above the horror and thriller genres it parrots a little too readily even as it doesn’t commit to either. It’s a shame. Seeing her delve into the depths of a great psycho story could’ve been a real thrill.
House at the End of the Street opens Friday.
WIRED Jennifer Lawrence.
TIRED Fairly cliché and predictable; uneven script; tropes on tropes on tropes.
Rating: 
