For Sale by Owner

I watched this movie late last night (alone) and it really freaked me out. Although, in my opinion, the movie needs to be reclassified as a horror rather than a thriller. The storyline is very unique and extremely realistic. I am not a horror buff but this one grabbed my attention. Although the story develops slowly, the movie never lost my attention. The actors and the cinematographer deed a very good job. The black and white flashback sequences were very disturbing. But as some other viewers already commented, there were some plot holes/things I didn't get. But I am guessing that those questions were done on purpose and the writer wanted to keep a certain degree of ambiguity. Upon reviewing the movie the second time, a lot of questions seem to have been answered very subtly.

Bottom line was, I really enjoyed it, it was creepy and would highly recommend this one to my friends.

Premise seemed familiar - serial killer on the loose in a quiet town, woman home alone to find a strange man in her house. But as the story developed, which starts a bit slow, the characters reveal deep inner demons that haunt them. Nice use of flashback and digital effects to show the world in their heads. I was expecting a bit more blood and gore, but found it to be smartly used when needed.

Just when I thought I had figured it out and knew how it would end, it seems to throw that upside down. This is a nice lower-budget indie film from the US that had some surprisingly good acting despite a relatively modest production value. Worth a look.

"For Sale By Owner" is a haunting thriller--from which you assume, trained by recent movies, that it is filled with nerve wreaking tension, eerie flash-backs and extremely disturbing character study. For those who expect episodic, gory, blood and guts ride, this is not your type of movie. On the contrary, it is a clever story in which an atmosphere of dread slowly envelops the characters--too slowly at times.

The film takes place in a house in small-town USA called Emeryville. In this house lives Sera (Amanda Brown) with her husband, Mr. Growstosky. To the house one day, on a stormy afternoon, comes a real-estate agent named Andrew Byrd (John Lansch), who is responding to Mr. Growstosky's call for putting the house for sale on the market.

Caught in the storm of the century and waiting for his ride, Sera reluctantly allows Andrew inside the house. At the same time, a serial killer is on a rampage, killing random victims and marking his kill by carving a number 13 on their chests.

During the course of their conversation, we find out that Andrew is an extremely temperamental person fighting a nasty child custody battle. His personality changes after a few drinks. Sera soon realizes that Andrew does to plan to leave and her life might be in jeopardy.

Just when things begin to take turn for the worst, John Denton (Marc H) shows up at the door in a form of Messiah. Just when Sera starts feeling a bit secured, we learn that John is carrying religious baggage.

The movie's events are such that I must not describe them. Even a hint might give away the game. Of course they are elusive and mysterious, explained first one way and then another.

The director has the patience to create a languorous, suspense filled atmosphere, and Amanda Brown succeeds in convincing me that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric. The writing, although not superlative, had me glued to the screen wanting to watch as the drama unfolded.

I was initially excited to check this film out, but I was sadly disappointed. My girlfriend couldn't even be bother to stay awake for its full duration. I'm rather baffled with all the positive reviews on here at the moment. Perhaps it's not seen wide distribution yet... the rating, however, speaks for itself.

The acting is probably the best thing the movie has going for it, but the dialog they have to work with is stilted and filled with awkward pauses. You do get the feeling though that they were making their best attempts to make a silk purse of a sow's ear, so to speak. There are too few characters to really leave any doubt in your mind about how the film will end (despite well meaning attempts to throw you off the trail) and I would think that most folks would have it figured out after about ten minutes. Coincidently, this is about where my girlfriend fell asleep, although she was still able to guess the correct conclusion on her first try the next day.

I hate to tear down the work of anyone, and it is admirable that this project made it through from script to production and distribution, but there is so much other great independent work out there now in the same vein (all of the After Dark Horror Fest releases, for example) that the bar has been raised and movies like this just won't cut it anymore.

For Sale By Owner (USA movie), in my opinion, is a very solid thriller, very original in terms of plot, slow-paced but never boring. The storyline was wonderful, and this is something that could happen to people. It kept me on the edge of my couch wanting, sometimes begging to know what comes next.

The movie's wonderful and unexpected twist was a surprise for me and it's done so cleverly that you'll want to revisit the film to see just how the trickery was managed.

All three characters (Sera, John and Andrew), although extremely dark, appear genuine real life characters that lend a physiological element genre making it entertaining to watch.

For Sale By Owner is a spine tingling,frightening thriller that I really enjoyed.!