House At The End Of The Street Review

House At The End Of The Street
Sarah and her daughter Elissa buy a house next door to a site where a girl murdered her parents. Elissa befriends the surviving son of the family...

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

21 Sep 2012

Running Time:

NaN minutes

Certificate:

Original Title:

House At The End Of The Street

Teenager Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) and her overprotective Mom (Elisabeth Shue) rent an isolated home in the woods, which is affordable because it’s within eyeshot of the site of a recent massacre. Everyone tells Elissa not to make friends with local outcast Ryan (Max Theriot), sensitive survivor of the killings, but she does … and twist-laden psycho-stalking ensues.

Directed by Brit Mark Tonderai (Hush), this is unusual in a contemporary horror movie for having relatively complex characters and excellent performances (Lawrence continues to impress) but dropping the ball in the plot department. Interesting things happen early on, but they set up a twist which sidetracks the film into escape-from-the-basement cliché.

A few old favourites – like the inconveniently wonky torch and the probably-not-quite-killed maniac – deliver the required jolts, but early promise dwindles to hokum.
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