Model House

In my over 2000+ reviews here, I have discussed dozens of B-movies that were essentially 90 minutes of your life you were never going to get back. Ever. MODEL HOUSE does not exactly fit that category. Let's start with the opening. Although it was probably not deliberate, the "shocker" off the top, clearly intended to hook the audience, turns out to have the highest production values of the entire movie. That 2 minute bit, which could stand entirely on its own as a cautionary tale about the dangers of social media, is so well done that it actually promises you a much better production than you actually get. The rest of the movie tries really hard to maintain that standard, but does not succeed. Speaking of standards, if you hold this film to the standards of the original 1970s slasher flicks -- which implies that you actually went to theaters in the 1970s -- it will actually pass the bar. So, as a retro exercise, you have an above-average script (with a few surprises) painfully dragging this B-movie to the finish line. However, if you hold this film to the more modern standards of horror/suspense, it gets marks for effort but still comes up short. Way short. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Stumbling upon the 2024 thriller "Model House" by random chance, I opted to sit down and watch it, on account of it being a movie that I had never heard about.

I didn't know what I was in for here, so writer and director Derek Pike had every opportunity to entertain me with this movie.

While "Model House" certainly was a watchable popcorn thriller movie, it just wasn't an outstanding viewing experience. Writer and director Derek Pike was simply keeping the movie afloat by using generic horror tropes and home invasion tropes that has been done and seen countless times in other movies. And on that account, then "Model House" just didn't bring anything new to the genre. Sure, it was a watchable horror movie, though it was a generic and rather forgettable one at that.

The acting performances in the movie were good, and there were a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Cory Anne Roberts, Scout Taylor-Compton, Randy Wayne, Phillip Andre Botello and Ryan Merriman.

Visually then "Model House" was okay. Nothing outstanding here in terms of special effects or gore.

Watchable for what it was, "Model House" is a thriller movie that came and went. I doubt that I will ever return to watch it a second time.

My rating of "Model House" lands on a five out of ten stars.

The acting wasn't bad at all. Some of the actors were actually quiet good. I'll be looking forward to seeing more from Cory-Anne Roberts in particular, and Natalie Nootenboom.

This is one of those movies where you kind of need to be a fan of the genre to enjoy it, in my opinion. A fun 'home invasion' flick, nothing mould-braking, but worth a watch if you like the genre.

Some jump-scares got me, which is rare nowadays, so props for that. Also, the masks used were creepy, which is good. Simple but effective!

Overall, I'd say the current rating is a good point lower than what I think it should be.

Y'know how sometimes movies can be be really terrible, but there were a few scenes, or characters, or lines of dialog that made them worthwhile? This isn't one of those. To be fair, the opening scene was enjoyable, but that only upped my expectations for the rest of the movie. Yup, two minutes into the movie, you've already seen the best this movie has to offer, then nothing else comes close.

There were some early scenes that the director may have felt were stylish, but, in retrospect, were more likely added just to pad the movie's runtime. Or, equally plausible, an early draft of the script had elements that were discarded along the way. I won't go into specifics, so as not to include any spoilers, but if you have absolutely nothing better to do and watch this movie, you'll see what I mean.

Five girls live and work in an isolated house. They are models and social media influencers. One night, two masked intruders take them captive. They are robbers but not in a traditional way.

I couldn't care less about these girls. They are mostly annoying and I stop paying attention to them. It's a tough first thirty minutes after a fun car accident. The home invasion part is fun for a little while. At a certain point, this group of robbers would have killed everybody and burn the house down. They definitely would not carefully wrap up the bodies for disposal. I still like some of kills, but this is a pretty stupid movie.