House Hunting

Two families visit an isolated show home only to discover that they can't leave. The house doesn't lock them in, they just can't leave the area as whichever way they turn they find themselves back at the house.

The house kindly provides food and not so kindly lots of ghostly mind games that drive a wedge between the families and each other.

Initially I found myself enjoying the film but the creators quickly ran out of ideas and it found itself in the realm of one of those horror flicks that makes the rules up as it goes along and never really explains anything.

Starring Art LaFleur this could have been something quite special if the creators had thought the whole thing through. It's like the television show Lost (2004) where it became evident the writers never had some clever ending to explain everything that happened and just went with the generic one everyone had guessed in episode 1.

The Good:

Art LaFleur

Decent start

The Bad:

Poor middle & end

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to see a Phase 4 film that I actually liked!

Despite it being billed as a low budgeted, straight to video movie, it delivered! Not only was it scary but it has a great twist and ending!

You would do yourself a great disservice by judging this movie too early or based on negative reviews.

It is dark, scary and has a realistic plot that is easy to relate to. Marc Singer did an excellent job at a dual "role".

Watching this movie will make you never want to go house hunting again and if you do, you will be sure to bring extra clothes and food!

If the American dream for most families is buying a house, then for the two families headed to what they think is a simple open house, that dream is about to become a nightmare. A psychological thriller mixed in with your traditional ghost story, that is smart, tense and well conceived, overall a good movie with a well thought out plot. Acting wasn't fantastic but this did not detract too much from the movie which was overall quiet enjoyable. Low budget movie with a great story line. I couldn't imagine that this movie would make it to cinema release but it wouldn't be a bad DVD to rent. They need a better DVD cover tho. The picture makes it look like it will be a gory horror, which its not.

Initially I had expected something else from this movie as it was brandishing the label "a new chapter in haunted house stories. Brutal, original, and eerie as hell." on the DVD cover.

However, that being said, then it isn't a bad movie, far from it. I enjoyed it thoroughly, despite it not being a haunted house movie in the sense that I had hoped.

The story is captivating and interesting, especially as you are just given small bits and pieces of what is going on. And director Eric Hurt does a good job at building up suspense. Essentially, the story is about two families who are looking for a new house to call home, who happen to come across the same house. A beautiful old house with 70 acres of land, a deal that seems to good to be true. And it was. Once there, the two families find out that they are unable to leave the lot, and tensions start to rise and their pasts come to haunt them.

The house itself was nicely put together, with just the right amount of stuff to make it seem like a scary place, while on the inside, the house seemed like an ordinary, livable home.

The characters in the movie were nicely fleshed out as well, each with their own secrets and skeletons in their closets. And it was the kind of characters that you easily got a liking or a hatred towards, so thumbs up on the character development.

As for the people cast for the various roles, then they had some good names to the cast list. And the reasons for me buying this movie, aside from believing it to be a proper haunted house movie, was because Marc Singer is in the movie. I haven't really seen him since "V" and "Beast Master", so it was a treat to see him on the screen again. Art LaFleur also did a good job in the movie. But most noticeable was Rebekah Kennedy, playing Hanna - the girl with no tongue.

Despite "The Wrong House" being a different kind of haunted house type of movie, it provides good entertainment, and the story is a good one, revealing just enough to keep the audience in the dark and guessing at what's going on. The ending however, well I didn't see that one coming, but it was a really great way to end off the movie.

House Hunting was definitely worth the watch, especially if you enjoy psychological horror indies along the lines of "Triangle" or "The Corridor".

IMDb has it miscategorized as 'Thriller' but rest assured this is straight-up horror, not thriller. There's not much gore to speak of but the supernatural aspects are clear and evident. Get it right IMDb!

Quick, spoiler-free plot summary: Marc Singer (sans eyebrows for some odd reason) leads his family to an isolated bargain property for a real estate viewing. When they get there they are joined by a second family who arrives at the same time to view the house. The second family is headed up by Art LaFleur who puts in a stellar performance as a gruff, over-protective father on the edge of sanity. The two families soon find that they cannot leave the premises, and that every turn just brings them back to the same house. As time wears on, each family member in the house experiences their own unique psychological strains and each is haunted by past tragedies or wrongdoings. The strain inevitably pits them against each other.

The unfortunate weakness of the movie was the unsatisfactory climax that didn't adequately explain the WHY of the phenomenon. Hints are given, messily, but in the end it's never fully resolved. As the credits rolled you get the sense that writer/director Eric Hurt may not have had a fully developed idea in his head after all, and that the vagueness might have come from a place of indecision or poor scriptwriting rather than a more intellectual or intentional origin.

If you can handle those films where you're left saying "It was good, but I just didn't get it", then House Hunting may be a good addition to your viewing list. It's certainly stronger and less clichéd than most of the other indies available on Netflix instant right now.