In a Stranger's House

I find myself very unbiased in my reviews of movie, and as I am a fan of the found footage genre I thought I would give this a try. BIG MISTAKE !!! I could bore you with the ins and outs of this one, but as per the title, literally nothing happens. I made it through to 1 hour 14 minutes, and with very little time left, I just switched it off. I am usually the one to see things through, but, nah, not with this one. Watch it, make your own mind up, and if you get through to the end, you are a better person than me.

Apparently not. Guy house-sits for some random woman, and for some reason he documents the experience. Inevitably some weird stuff takes place, though the emphasis is on 'some'.

The biggest problem with this film is the extensive amount of filler. Other micro-budget found footage films like Leaving D.C make the most of every minute, either with events that gradually move the plot along, or exposition that provides the protagonist with a personality. With A Stranger's Home every scene feels dragged out, even the good one. Even that scene loses its impact when the main character laughs it off the next day rather than call the police and drive miles away.

I may well have missed the explanation for the dodgy plot, due to the dialogue being so hard to hear, but given how the story progresses it makes absolutely no sense to give him chance after chance to get scared and run off.

It's not all bad. I liked the actor, and he has a very nice living room. I enjoyed that one scene around the middle point of the film, even if it didn't seem to have any real relevance to anything, and for a micro-budget project it's a reasonable little yarn.

I liked it. It was quite subtle in places as the mysterious events unfolded and the tension mounted.

THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE MIGHT BE CONSTRUED AS A VERY MINOR SPOILER FOR SOME PEOPLE WHO DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANY DETAIL BUT IT DOESN'T DETRACT FROM THE STORY OR GIVE ANYTHING AWAY. The very subtle sound of what may be a baby crying in the background, which he never referred to, was very effective. POSSIBLE SPOILER FINISHED. Nothing is fully explained but you can try and figure it out. You are placed into the centre of the mystery and our 'hero' with the camera is our avatar. So, rather than have it conveniently explained we just have to go through what he went through. There was quite an original soundscape too. Although, the genre is now full of tropes and even cliches, this particular effort felt quite fresh in places. The man with the camera was neither hysterical nor completely sceptical...although he was more biased towards scepticism. This kept him emotionally quite even and stable and curious enough to stick around in order to get to the bottom of these strange events. This made his fear all the more believable and palpable as things started to mount up. Overall, almost zero budget, well-paced, likeable protagonist, original soundscape, some very creepy, initially subtle, moments with steadily mounting tension throughout the film. Worth a watch in a very competitive genre.

This no-budget found footage horror film is now one of my favorites! The scares are understated, never relies on cheap jump scares (not a single one), and use your imagination against you. If you are picky about the unwritten rules of found footage, you will be pleased to find that this film follows them all. No soundtrack/music, no noises that seem like they don't come from the camera's microphone, and no annoying jump scares. Smart and subtle.

I like how the main character seems curious and cautious, but has a bit of boldness. It's refreshing to see an atypical protrayal from the lead. No annoying screaming or huffing. At first, he finds things interesting and slowly becomes more and more frightened. But he never feels over the top.

My only complaint is that the tension built in the first half fizzles a bit in the second half and devolves into some cliches. It still works, it's just that the spooky bits weren't as creative in the last half.

Overall, this is a fantastic indie horror film that is very well executed.

I've turned off worse.

It had its creep factor moments. The problem I had with the movie was the guy's reaction to things. It seems that his downplaying of what had previously happened and were currently happening took away from the potential frights. Sometimes the scariest thing about a moment is when the person you're with is scared, and that was really lacking in this.

He was an above adequate actor, I just know I would have some bigger reactions to what I was witnessing.

Could he also not have just turned on some lights? Did I miss something?