For Sale by Owner

Premise seemed familiar - serial killer on the loose in a quiet town, woman home alone to find a strange man in her house. But as the story developed, which starts a bit slow, the characters reveal deep inner demons that haunt them. Nice use of flashback and digital effects to show the world in their heads. I was expecting a bit more blood and gore, but found it to be smartly used when needed.

Just when I thought I had figured it out and knew how it would end, it seems to throw that upside down. This is a nice lower-budget indie film from the US that had some surprisingly good acting despite a relatively modest production value. Worth a look.

While the story does have holes and the pacing could use a lot of work, I think a lot of the acting made up for what the story was missing. This is definitely not a fast-paced thriller, but rather a dark drama with some interesting plot twists. Although at times it felt like it was dragging on a bit, I thought the acting was superb with the writing the actors had to work with. The "John" character really came alive for me. The character may have been written a little stereotypical, but the actor stood out and made me believe in this guy. On top of it, he was handsome to watch. The cinematography was also impressive for a small scale film. My advice, if you are in the mood for an above mediocre drama/thriller with a few surprises, check out this little indie, you may be pleasantly surprised like me.

I was initially excited to check this film out, but I was sadly disappointed. My girlfriend couldn't even be bother to stay awake for its full duration. I'm rather baffled with all the positive reviews on here at the moment. Perhaps it's not seen wide distribution yet... the rating, however, speaks for itself.

The acting is probably the best thing the movie has going for it, but the dialog they have to work with is stilted and filled with awkward pauses. You do get the feeling though that they were making their best attempts to make a silk purse of a sow's ear, so to speak. There are too few characters to really leave any doubt in your mind about how the film will end (despite well meaning attempts to throw you off the trail) and I would think that most folks would have it figured out after about ten minutes. Coincidently, this is about where my girlfriend fell asleep, although she was still able to guess the correct conclusion on her first try the next day.

I hate to tear down the work of anyone, and it is admirable that this project made it through from script to production and distribution, but there is so much other great independent work out there now in the same vein (all of the After Dark Horror Fest releases, for example) that the bar has been raised and movies like this just won't cut it anymore.

In Emeryville, the dwellers are scared with the serial killer that craves the number thirteen on his victims. During a stormy afternoon, the school counselor Sarah (Amanda Brown) allows the insistent real-state agent Andrew Byrd (John Lansch) to stay inside her house while waiting for his ride. Andrew is disputing the custody of his daughter Samara and shows an unbalanced man while having a conversation with Sarah. When the security system agent John Denton (Marc Hustvedt) arrives in the house for maintenance of the alarm system, Sarah feels secure. However, when a mark with 13 is found in one room, Sarah realizes that she is in danger.

"For Sale by Owner" is a theatrical and tense thriller and shows characters in the edge in the thin line between sanity and insanity. The story is developed in a slow-pace and probably that is the reason of the low IMDb User Rating. However the acting is good and despite the last confused twist, I liked this little movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa do Pânico" ("The House of the Panic")

On a dark and stormy night, with a serial killer on the loose, Sera (Amanda Brown) invites two strangers in, either of whom could be a serial killer.

Amanda Brown makes an unlikely protagonist. She is not particularly likable in this role, but does a fine job of being vulnerable. And maybe that is the important part: knowing that if the man in her house is a serial killer, she probably stands no chance against him.

This film strikes me as being like Larry Cohen's "Pick Me Up", but with a mysterious twist. In "Pick Me Up", we have a woman surrounded by two serial killers. Here, we have a woman with two strangers in her house -- but we have no idea if they are both killers, one of them is a killer, or maybe neither of them are. Both are creepy, but what does that mean?

The film is slow, and very little happens... but it is somewhat interesting and I am tempted to bump up my rating of it a little bit. But, sadly, it is just not quite worthy.