Open House

Credit IMDb A couple on the verge of a nasty divorce attempt to sell their empty love nest and move on with their lives, separately. After a successful open house they are horrified to discover, days later, that a potential buyer didn't leave their home. While Alice is being held captive in the basement, the unannounced house guest moves in upstairs. She senses her capture is being kept a rebellious secret. She knows her way only way out if she can only get out alive.

This had potential, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. I felt no sympathy for Blanchard's character, no tension, no scares, and the ending ruined some decent tension in the finale..

Performances. Brian Geraghty is OK as the conflicted psycho, but nothing more. Rachel Blanchard is easy on the eyes, but a bit disappointing in her role, while Anna Paquin probably gives the best performance.

Bottom line. Annoying villains, cheap plot, and an ending that just pis*** me off, when tension was finally apparent. Give it a miss.

3 1/2 10

This is quite a slick looking low-budget entry that is nothing if not well shot. It is a combination of Slasher, Home Invasion, Psychological Movies that has nothing new to offer. A sleek vista of external pretty structures and people who can be extremely ugly internally.

This is finely acted and the killings are brutal and there is an air of tension but it all seems rather vapid considering all the carnage with some incestuous carnal knowledge that is hardly explored or explained.

It is so thinly written and the short running time hardly allows for much in-depth display of interesting complex psychopathy. The Movie moves along with some intrigue but it is all as anorexic as the supposedly alluring and sexy dominatrix.

After all, it is worth a view for fans of perversion and playful and detached sociopaths who look like the ordinary, well groomed neighbors who may live on your block in the last house on the left. The original owners should have put a panic room in the cellar. View with low expectations and you might find this OK from a first time Director that has a better eye for architecture than the arcane or so called Cult Movies.

If you like watching anorexic women - watch this movie. It is disturbing and distracting to watch Trish Helfer walk around in a bikini with neck bones, hip bones, rib bones and the rest of her bones poking under her skin. I spent a good majority of the film wondering why no one had the decency to tie her up and force feed a couple burgers while explaining that she looks like a walking skeleton and this would scare the audience more than the sub par script.

You also have to suspend some reality to believe that the brother is afraid of her. One quick slap and he could have broken all those protruding bones in her 80lb body.

Anna Paquin and Steven Moyer - just a bait and switch since they had about 10 minutes of screen time.

End of movie - no idea since I turned it off. Then I ate a sandwich. Try it sometime Trish.

I made my husband turn it off because I can't imagine any women could be as useless and pathetic as Alice - and as an actress, she's terrible too, with that odd smirk she has she's not believable at all. Anyway home sick so I finished the movie and oh my gosh why did I waste my time! At least I was multi-tasking. I love how she had plenty of opportunities to escape or attack David and she bungles it each time, the stored bodies in the ice chests, the not-at-all nosy neighbors (should have put the house in the country or something), And finally, the end: how does someone with a steak knife in the eye have such wherewithal as Lila? And such perfect aim! As for Alice, one less breeder I say, what a milksop, your damn chain is a damn weapon! Oh but she's only had it on for a week or more, no doubt she forgot about it altogether. And that guy/friend at the end, what a complete douche - oh gee you're chained in the basement, smells like rotting death down here, you're covered in blood, a bloody woman is on the floor, you've been MIA for awhile, but what's that you're saying, R ye shuere heehaw??? OK OK just wait, let me call the police - UPSTAIRS - cause it's an emergency they get here but not an emergency that we get the F out! Come on, seriously?! Someone said it was like a high school film project, I agree, since no one seemed to take the characters, the plot, the acting or the viewers seriously! I'm willing to bet a few people (sis, sis's bf) were in this movie gratis, just to get it produced, which was a sad mistake. I don't know why I let movies get me angry, but they do, the ones that waste my time and make me feel like everyone involved must think the audience are complete Nimrods. I know there WERE some Nimrods out there that liked this movie, or at least didn't dislike it, but I'm afraid to know what movies are on their top ten list - and they probably are the first in line to see the next Saw, Final Destination, or Paranormal Activity (#3 Baby!!!!!) hahaha.

As usual, when I watch a film with psychopathic homicidal criminals who seem to have everything go their way despite taking ludicrous risks and being sloppy to the extreme, I sit there half angry trying to process it all.

The film is about a serial killer duo who apparently move from house to house, killing all the occupants, setting up residence for a week or two, then leaving to repeat the process again. Criminally speaking, this can go on successfully for a time and eventually they WILL get caught. They operate in a way in which they leave tonnes of evidence; fingerprints, witnesses, plus half a dozen dead bodies, people who had plans/appointments to come to the house and apparently NONE of them informing their loved ones or friends about where they were going, and thus, the police stay well out of the picture. This is what we know after having sat through half of the film, so at this point we realise 1. they arrive on scene ALREADY wanted by the police. 2. composite sketches should be being blasted all over the news. 3. chances are they should be identified by fingerprints and/or DNA (hair strands/blood). The fact that both killers, but the woman in particular are being so brazen during this film more or less gives them a 95% chance of being caught

All this being said, assuming they're the luckiest serial killers alive with an unnatural blessing to kill as many people as they want to (It's a weak poorly planned serial killer movie, so OF COURSE.), and assuming they are this lucky, let's examine the 5% window that this film lives in. One question people will always ask themselves is "how is it that no one in the neighbourhood took notice or showed suspicion." A valid question, though even more valid is the general lack of concern by people uninvolved. e.g. I once personally saw someone get kidnapped off the street and hauled into a moving van, and I didn't particularly care enough to call the police, as I was already late for my train, and I didn't see any of the other few people around reaching for their cell phones either, so this aspect of the film's integrity which other reviewers have brought up, is honestly not a worthy criticism.

Where I turn to now is the character's actions. The worst and most nonsensical aspect to me is the character driven premise... WHY does the male killer not simply kill the owner the second she walks into the room, finding her friend dead. He has absolutely no reason not to, has already killed 3 people in the house, so it makes no sense, as well as being really stagy how she backs into where he's hiding and then all fades to black and she SOMEHOW conveniently loses consciousness basically so the encounter/interaction between the two wont have to be dealt with and she can awaken later in chains. Not very smooth directing at all. That being said, the directing is VERY American school, as the film is riddled with 5 or so scenes where characters show up JUST at that pesky moment.

To top it off, an important criticism that many brought up was the dialogue and thus the motivation of the characters. Firstly, despite the owner stating that she believes the male killer is DIFFERENT than his female counterpart, he is clearly just as brutal as her, if not moreso, and there is no real worthy conflict between the 2 killers shown. He is really given NO motive, emotional, logistical, or otherwise to abandon his current companion for this new woman that he for no particular reason spared, and had no meaningful dialogue with, and thus no real basis for any emotional connection.

The ending however was more or less the final shitscoop on the turd Sunday we've been forced to swallow here; contrived, melodramatic, stagy, and the climax of an entirely unfounded plot premise for all the reasons I have listed above. Even though the acting is fairly competent, especially by the male antagonist, it really leaves you feeling nothing in the end, and honestly, I really cannot see the point in sacrificing any of your time on a film written/directed by someone who took no time to produce meaningful dialogue, and who clearly put no thought or planning into the nature of the criminal elements portrayed on screen.