Most of the wide release horror films these days seem to focus more on the star power than really trying to deliver that scares or originality. With the latest The House At The End Of The Street they showcase Jennifer Lawrence in the lead to attempt to tell a creepy tale that the trailers left enough mystery to not really know where it was going, but does it work?
The House At The End Of The Street follows a divorce doctor and her daughter who move into a new house in a small town. Seemingly too good to be true, they were able to get this amazing house due to it being next door to a home where a young girl stabbed her parents to death. When the daughter befriends the boy that inherited the house from his parents the mysteries begin to unravel to reveal the truth of the past and the dangers of the present. The story here is seemingly pretty simple at first, but does end up adding some interesting twists and turns to go into directions that you may or may not see coming. The performances are decent and keep the filming moving at a decent pace, but that pace is where some of the film falls apart. Instead of the creepy horror film it teased in the trailers you spend more time dealing with the various personal issues as opposed to the main story that struggles to be the focus. This film plays more of a slow thriller with very little meat than a full on creepy horror film they wanted you to believe and it ended up just not working overall.
If you go into this film knowing that it offers little more than a Lifetime movie vibe with a bit of a thriller twist then you will most likely enjoy it. The interesting direction they headed by the time the film comes to an end was cool and would have made for a better film had they spent more time on it. This isn’t a horrible movie; it just doesn’t play as advertised like a lot of films and ends up not delivering what it could have.
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