House on Eden

Found footage movies generally tend to suck in my opinion. The formula is the same which is one step above reality tv. I'll admit the Blair Witch in 1999 was kind of spooky and had a decent premise to it. Here we have something that mashed every found footage horror movie you've ever seen. There's a cult in there somewhere connected to a strange spooky house and it's out in the secluded area of the universe. Sorta like a forest this one heavily borrowed from the 1999 movie and I even recognize a few other stolen situations from other horror movies. The movie starts out pretty decent. A blogger is blogging her experience in the haunted house of Eden. There are some spooky noises and a few jump scares until the second half where it becomes a letdown. The ending in these movies are setting you up for the big reveal these movies are known for. Here, it's almost like folks saw those boring A24 movies and put together a climax. Anyhow, this one is supposed to be headed for shudder soon which is better than dropping $12.

Pleasantly surprised. I knew the actors were content creators, but I'd only seen short clips here and there. I liked Kris in the Smosh Reddit episode, so I decided to check out the movie. The acting felt really natural, and I felt like I was along for the ride with 3 friends.

There were three solid jump scares that actually got me good but I do wish we got more background on the setting lore. My biggest issue was the overuse of handheld camera shots at the beginning. The constant motion started to give me a headache so I had to close my eyes.

Still, for a first-time writer and director, this was a fun and impressive debut. You can tell she has some interesting ideas.

I don't understand why people feel the need to repeat the work of others 25 years later and call themselves a writer and a director? It's 2025, it's clearly obvious Kris Collins stumbled upon the Blair Witch Project and decided to put together some lame trash of her own. There's is nothing original here. It's a complete rip off from other found footage style movies, think also, REC or the American version Quarantine. Everything is overacted and unbelievable. The movie shots are abysmal. This isn't 90s and shooting everything with 480i resolution cameras is a cheap way out for a lack of vision in horror story telling. Trying to create tension with out of focus cameras and cheap thudding sounds and a obscure backstory into religion is overplayed. How did this even get greenlit for the big screen is beyond me. I was so happy the movie was short.

House on Eden isn't the worst found footage film I've seen, but it's nowhere near the best. Ambitious but hollow.

House on Eden is the latest entry into the increasingly crowded found footage subgenre and another notable step in the growing trend of YouTubers crossing into feature filmmaking. This time it's Kris Collins (better known as KallMeKris), teaming up with fellow digital star Celina Myers (CelinaSpookyBoo) in a haunted house setup that blends The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and the kind of chaotic energy you might expect from content creators who built their names on short-form, personality-driven videos.

To her credit, Kris Collins doesn't just appear in the film-she wrote and directed it as well. Unlike other creators who leave their YouTube personas behind (like Chris Stuckmann or the Philippou brothers), Collins tries to fuse her online presence with the cinematic experience. It's a bold move, but unfortunately, the final result is more of a jumbled collision than a successful fusion.

The core premise, paranormal investigators documenting a malevolent presence inside an abandoned house using a mix of Super 8mm, Hi-8, and modern digital cameras has its appeal. The use of varying formats is visually interesting at times, and when it works, it evokes an eerie, fragmented sense of dread.

But Then There's the Execution. The first act spends far too long in the woods with jittery, poorly framed shots and confusing direction. Sure, the characters are supposed to be content creators, but shaky cam does not equal immersive. Instead of drawing us into their world, it just makes it hard to follow what's happening. Bad angles, awkward cuts, and aimless dialogue slow the pacing to a crawl.

The biggest problem House on Eden faces-by far-is its lack of likeable or compelling characters. For a film so focused on "real" personalities, it's bizarre how hollow the leads feel. I didn't care if they made it out. I didn't care if they didn't. There's no investment and there for there is no tension built.

As a fellow YouTuber prepping to make the leap into filmmaking myself, I'll say this, my hat's off to Kris and Celina. This kind of project is hard. Most people just talk about making a movie... they did it. And that deserves respect. There's ambition here. There's effort. There's even the seed of a great idea. But in the end, House on Eden feels like a first draft of something that needed a clearer vision, better character work, and more time in the editing room.

I think people are being overly critical of this movie. They had something like seven days to film and no budget. Shudder picked it up after it was made, so the creators didn't even have Shudder money when making it.

With those limitations, I saw a lot of promise. The concept turned out to be cool. Like others, I'd have liked to see that explored more and more depth to the horror elements, but I also respect the limits they had.

This is a first time writer/director for sure. But I would definitely watch another movie by them. I really enjoyed all three of the actors. I've loosely followed Kris for a while now, but all comedic things, so I was surprised when someone mentioned a horror found footage by content creators and Kris was a part of it. But good surprised.

This movie is worth a stream.