House at the End of the Street Movie Review

Runtime: 101 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: September 21, 2012
Director: Mark Tonderai

Sarah (Elizabeth Shue, Piranha) is a former party girl who leaves that life behind when she divorces her musician husband and moves her daughter Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games) into the middle of nowhere. Sarah isn’t fond of the dilapidated house next door, especially when she learns the story behind it. The family who lived there sent their son away to care for his aunt, and their daughter Carrie-Ann murdered them both before disappearing.

Naturally, Elissa meets Ryan (Max Thieriot, My Soul to Take), Carrie-Ann’s brother and starts to like him. He tells her that when they were kids, they were extremely close and played together like kids. During flashbacks, we learn that their mother was a drug addict who seldom paid attention to them. While playing on the swings, Carrie-Ann fell off and cracked her head on the ground. She had the mental capacity of a child and started acting out, which led to him leaving.

Even though Ryan literally seems like the sweet guy next door, Sarah is incredibly nervous about him being around her daughter. She asks Officer Weaver (Gil Bellows, The Shawshank Redemption) what he thinks, and the man gets a little upset. He tells her that people in town blame Ryan for what happened and that he’s constantly defending the boy. Sarah decides to make things better by inviting him over for dinner, only to tell him that he can’t be alone with her daughter. Since Elissa is a teenage girl, she naturally gets even more interested in Ryan, which leads to her discovery of what actually happened years ago.

I cannot believe the shitty reviews that I read for House at the End of the Street! I actually enjoyed it, especially compared to the crap that I’ve seen lately (The Possession, I’m looking at you!). It had one scene that actually made me jerk in my seat because I should have seen it coming, but I got a little too comfortable. There are also a few squirm-inducing scenes in the film.

One of those scenes comes when a character knocks over a lamp and lets the heat from the bulb burn through the restraints keeping her tied down. Watch closely, and you can actually see blisters forming on her skin around the bandages. Another comes when a guy gets his leg broken in a truly disgusting way. It won’t bother some viewers, but it definitely grossed out my ex-Marine boyfriend.

I have a girl crush on Lawrence, and my boyfriend has a crush on Shue, so this was a great movie for us. It had a nice mixture of creepiness and darkness that I really loved. I will most likely end up adding it to my collection in the near future.