House by the Lake

What is really horrifying about this movie is that it has been produced such as it is! What's up with Gwen? Is she flirting with Scott or just being naive? What is her agenda with the Morgans? Who/What is the fish man? Is it real (well water marks around the house are real..) or is it just the pedophile next door in disguise? And I could go on and on... There are so many loose ends, so many chances to make it a good horror/thriller movie wasted.

I second the previous review, good acting for James Callis and good music score.

Unfortunately, this is yet another horror movie that starts out great and ends with a cringe. Granted, Callis and Dudek were downright impressive, so if you just want to see the dynamics of a troubled marriage played out, you might appreciate this. If you are looking for a clever plot, you will just be annoyed when you get to the end. Seriously, expect an incredibly lame ending.

Its the rather (too) common structure ..

• struggling couple .. with the wife being a kind of nagging, older type
• hot and younger woman to complete the triangle
• some creepy guy
• creepy kid

While there is some sort of a chemistry between the mother and father, the (supposed) chemistry to the teacher/babysitter feels forced and anything but realistic. The relationship to the child is non existent... as a matter of fact it is completely unrealistic how the child can function at all .. or how the adults around it can be so oblivious and irrational not to act accordingly.

The setting of the house as a healing process seems to be silly as it obviously does not work at all, nor do the man and woman put any active effort into making it work.

The father is irrational beyond the point of being extremely annoying, the mother ... despite not having any reasonable connection to the daughter .. seems to consider her to be of utmost importance.

On the technical side, there is some "slight" shaky cam .. which i do not like at all .. as it does not add anything.

The acting is cheesy and on the level of a south american telenovela (overdramatic and overacted) .. also, there seems to be very little actual story in the film. It felt more like one of the worse episodes of X-files featuring the "monster of the week" .. in times when the show seemed to have a very low budget.

So why does it still have 3/10 for me? .. well, there are worse movies out there .. but this one certainly adds to the list of very boring and stereotypical ones.

Not recommended at all.

I found this movie very interesting and entertaining until the end. I won't spoil it, but I actually laughed out loud because it was a real surprise.

If nothing else, it's good for a laugh.

The feel of this movie is contradictory right from the beginning for me. Some aspects are decidedly 2nd rate...some camera work and editing, and acting, at times. But There are some top notch aspects that made this film worth a chance. It isn't a horror, more of a thriller and it wasn't half bad.

The script has the flavor of a life time movie. (Maybe a 13+ rating)Which isn't a terrible thing if you are OK with that type of movie. The acting of the father/husband "Scott" was VERY impressive. I haven't seen him in anything else before but his work stood head and tales above the rest of the cast.

The score/music is well done if not a bit overly dramatic. The story is realistic in that there is a struggle within the marriage over the stress of having an autistic child. A mother who is overly fearful and controlling. A nanny is hired to help them with the child when they visit the lake house.

The plot was nice, in that it didn't strictly follow the norm. What you would expect to happen in this type of movie is not what you get. There is by no means any type of WOW, heart attack moments, as the viewer, but there is connection to the characters and an interest in wanting to see what happens to them.

For an independent lower budget movie, this happen to be one of the better ones. Id give it a chance.