House on Eden

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.

Holy motion sickness, batman. If unsteady camera work makes you ill, skip this movie. I know they were trying to go for "authentic" found-footage, but they erred on the side of far too much shaky-cam running and it got to the point where I was seasick and honestly baffled (and getting increasingly annoyed) by how much time the cameras were out of focus.

Anyways, we watch as a group of ghost-investigating youtube vloggers head towards some little-known abandoned haunted house they NEVER give any background on, but somehow believe will be their biggest break and best video ever. We are then treated to a pretty classic haunted house story, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

There are some glaringly odd choices which reveal the budget and the makers' lack of experience/ nuance. Such as the vloggers walking to the 'derelict' house on an obviously-just-mowed-and-maintained trail, and the house being absolutely, immaculately clean, with fresh linens and pristine, well cared for, potted flowers; the artistic flop of having all of the characters use huge, bulky cameras with different resolutions instead of their phones; an inability to get the viewers to like and care for the characters; some plot gaps; and a fumbling of the ending typical for this genre.

But there are some genuinely creepy moments and the acting and editing are better than normal for this kind of movie. If this were just a freebie on Prime or found on a random TV channel with completely unknown actors, people would think it was pretty good. But the 'hollywood' hype and expectation for what is, essentially, a self-produced, amateur movie, are likely leading to many finding it disappointing.

So despite the flaws, this slots in as a solid-enough example of its type and a decent option for someone wanting a low-budget, classic-style haunted house type movie to watch.

I'm generally not a found-footage girlie, but viewed through the lens of a low-budget indie project, I think it's a pretty fun film. I enjoyed the references to demonology, even though it was pretty surface-level, and some of the less in-your-face scares put a big "oh that's creepy" grin on my face.

Now for my critiques. Kris's character feels the most fleshed out with clear desires and flaws, but the other characters, especially Celina, don't feel quite as realized.

For a House film, I would have liked more time in the house and less time messing around in the woods, especially since basically nothing happens during the first half of the film. I also would have liked a lot more lore and backstory on the house and its past. The convenience store scene especially could have been used at the beginning to add some foreshadowing.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the film as an indie project, and would be interested to see more.

I enjoyed the chemistry between all the actors, and the plot was pretty interesting. Don't listen to the reviews that have no fun watching these kinds of movies. Would watch again. The movie was fun, a little amateur, but fun. Ending was a little sudden, but that was really the only bad part. Overall, pretty good would love to watch again.

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.