Writer: Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote (Screenplay)
Starring: Dylan Minnette, Piercey Dalton, Sharif Atkins, Patricia Bethune, Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote
Plot: A teenager (Dylan Minnette) and his mother (Piercey Dalton) find themselves besieged by threatening forces when they move into a new house.
Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Bad Decisions 101
Story: Open House starts as Logan’s (Minnette) father is killed in a traffic accident, leaving him and his mother Naomi (Dalton) in debt needing to live in a family open house to help clear debts they have. The house in question is in the middle of the woods, large and genuinely creepy.
When strange things start happening around the house, they believe it might just be people from the open house, but soon things take a sinister turn and the two must fight to survive against an unknown enemy.
Thoughts on The Open House
Characters – Logan is a star athlete high school student, setting paces that will walk him into any college and even one an Olympic hopeful, but his life is shattered when his coach and father is killed in a traffic incident, this seems Logan moving away with his mother as they try to rebuild their lives and Logan needing to learn the strain that both will be feeling with this loss. Naomi is the mother that loses a husband, trying to remain strong for her son she does the best she can to keep a roof over their heads, even if that means holding up his potential. We do only get small supporting characters through the film, which do play out like suspects in a way, but none get enough time to make you believe it will or won’t be them.
Performances – This movie on Netflix is heavily being sold on Dylan Minnette one of the stars of 13 Reasons Why, but his performance in only standard for the genre, never bring too much to his character, which could easily have been more interesting or supportive, Piercey Dalton is good without reaching the strongest mother figure role and for some reasons we watch her have three showers just to make the point that someone is messing with the water.
Story – The story follows a family that suffer a sudden tragedy who must relocate to make ends meet, which involves living in an open house, only to find themselves being a stalked around their own house by a mysterious man and needing to find a way to survive. This is a basic story that never reaches any suspenseful moments that we needed, we have lazy character development and by the end it feels like this movie was designed to create a bigger project in the future.
Horror – The horror is fine, but mostly fake jump scares which gets hugely frustrating as by the end you will be left going, well that’s it.
Settings – The film is mostly set in a home in middle of the woods, we get moments that create isolation, including lose of phone, but even with an easy location it doesn’t get used well enough.
Scene of the Movie – Couldn’t find one.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Would you really drivee while on the phone after losing a family member in an accident.
Final Thoughts – This is a disappointing horror, it doesn’t use the suspense it had and by the end you are just left thinking ‘meh’
Overall: Forgettable horror movie
Rating