User reviews

Initially I had expected something else from this movie as it was brandishing the label "a new chapter in haunted house stories. Brutal, original, and eerie as hell." on the DVD cover.

However, that being said, then it isn't a bad movie, far from it. I enjoyed it thoroughly, despite it not being a haunted house movie in the sense that I had hoped.

The story is captivating and interesting, especially as you are just given small bits and pieces of what is going on. And director Eric Hurt does a good job at building up suspense. Essentially, the story is about two families who are looking for a new house to call home, who happen to come across the same house. A beautiful old house with 70 acres of land, a deal that seems to good to be true. And it was. Once there, the two families find out that they are unable to leave the lot, and tensions start to rise and their pasts come to haunt them.

The house itself was nicely put together, with just the right amount of stuff to make it seem like a scary place, while on the inside, the house seemed like an ordinary, livable home.

The characters in the movie were nicely fleshed out as well, each with their own secrets and skeletons in their closets. And it was the kind of characters that you easily got a liking or a hatred towards, so thumbs up on the character development.

As for the people cast for the various roles, then they had some good names to the cast list. And the reasons for me buying this movie, aside from believing it to be a proper haunted house movie, was because Marc Singer is in the movie. I haven't really seen him since "V" and "Beast Master", so it was a treat to see him on the screen again. Art LaFleur also did a good job in the movie. But most noticeable was Rebekah Kennedy, playing Hanna - the girl with no tongue.

Despite "The Wrong House" being a different kind of haunted house type of movie, it provides good entertainment, and the story is a good one, revealing just enough to keep the audience in the dark and guessing at what's going on. The ending however, well I didn't see that one coming, but it was a really great way to end off the movie.

Two families visit an isolated show home only to discover that they can't leave. The house doesn't lock them in, they just can't leave the area as whichever way they turn they find themselves back at the house.

The house kindly provides food and not so kindly lots of ghostly mind games that drive a wedge between the families and each other.

Initially I found myself enjoying the film but the creators quickly ran out of ideas and it found itself in the realm of one of those horror flicks that makes the rules up as it goes along and never really explains anything.

Starring Art LaFleur this could have been something quite special if the creators had thought the whole thing through. It's like the television show Lost (2004) where it became evident the writers never had some clever ending to explain everything that happened and just went with the generic one everyone had guessed in episode 1.

The Good:

Art LaFleur

Decent start

The Bad:

Poor middle & end

Thank god.. focusing on the story...this is how indie films should be made. It's about time we saw more smart horror films and less of the crappy gore that's slopped out these days. The DVD cover from redbox had us expecting something totally different (we didn't expect much actually) but as the story got going we were saw that we were in for an original experience, something we had to actually pay attention to. I'm sure a lot of people who are looking for a blood bath or don't have decent attention spans are going to be very disappointed, but for serious fans of the thriller / suspense genre this is not to be missed. There are a few holes here and there, but even those kept me guessing and opened up interesting questions for the viewer. Hope we see much more work from these people. This is well worth your time if you have a decent attention span.

House Hunting was definitely worth the watch, especially if you enjoy psychological horror indies along the lines of "Triangle" or "The Corridor".

IMDb has it miscategorized as 'Thriller' but rest assured this is straight-up horror, not thriller. There's not much gore to speak of but the supernatural aspects are clear and evident. Get it right IMDb!

Quick, spoiler-free plot summary: Marc Singer (sans eyebrows for some odd reason) leads his family to an isolated bargain property for a real estate viewing. When they get there they are joined by a second family who arrives at the same time to view the house. The second family is headed up by Art LaFleur who puts in a stellar performance as a gruff, over-protective father on the edge of sanity. The two families soon find that they cannot leave the premises, and that every turn just brings them back to the same house. As time wears on, each family member in the house experiences their own unique psychological strains and each is haunted by past tragedies or wrongdoings. The strain inevitably pits them against each other.

The unfortunate weakness of the movie was the unsatisfactory climax that didn't adequately explain the WHY of the phenomenon. Hints are given, messily, but in the end it's never fully resolved. As the credits rolled you get the sense that writer/director Eric Hurt may not have had a fully developed idea in his head after all, and that the vagueness might have come from a place of indecision or poor scriptwriting rather than a more intellectual or intentional origin.

If you can handle those films where you're left saying "It was good, but I just didn't get it", then House Hunting may be a good addition to your viewing list. It's certainly stronger and less clichéd than most of the other indies available on Netflix instant right now.

If the American dream for most families is buying a house, then for the two families headed to what they think is a simple open house, that dream is about to become a nightmare. A psychological thriller mixed in with your traditional ghost story, that is smart, tense and well conceived, overall a good movie with a well thought out plot. Acting wasn't fantastic but this did not detract too much from the movie which was overall quiet enjoyable. Low budget movie with a great story line. I couldn't imagine that this movie would make it to cinema release but it wouldn't be a bad DVD to rent. They need a better DVD cover tho. The picture makes it look like it will be a gory horror, which its not.

Despite starting off very badly, clichéd, and woodenly acted, I choose to stick with this movie about two families (one headed by ol' Beastmaster himself, Marc Singer) who go out to look at a quaint little house nestled on a 70-acre wooded lot only to find that some entity is keeping them trapped there. It got better and for awhile this psychological paranormal horror film was hitting the right notes and aside from some quibbles as the movie moved on some minor, one major (that I'll neglect to go into more detail about as I wish to keep this review spoiler-free), I ended up enjoying the film more than I had anticipated. It's currently streaming on Netflix so give it a go, just be aware that it has flaws.

Occasionally a film may fly under the radar as to how creepy and thought provoking it may be, and this film is indeed one of them. I was interested in the beginning, and unlike another reviewer, once the "one month later" screen appeared, I began to feel that a promising start may have ran out of steam, as I prefer taut films such as this one to take place in "real" time, as morning to noon, to night to next day we're with the characters, which really draws one in, and I was pleasantly surprised to see this one played out quite well. This film is well worth viewing, and I would highly recommend to anyone else looking for a creepy unnerving little film to keep to one the edge

You quickly realize from the opening scenes that you're in for a badly acted and predictable horror flick. The plot idea of being held captive in a house by a mysterious controlling force is kinda cool, but it soon gets old with bad direction and unrealistic acting. No real surprises, plenty of senseless dying, and several annoying clichés popping up that you'll soon recognize when you see it. On the positive side, if you enjoy this film, then lucky for you, there's no doubt a huge back log of films you have yet to discover in the same genre. Luckily when the movie finished, there was a re-run of 'Hart To Hart' on the TV, so the night wasn't a complete loss. I give it 2 stars for the story idea and 1 star for the canned stew that kept on giving.

The acting wasn't bad and the general premise was great, but executed oh so badly! Stupid plot holes and things that make no sense. It started ok but I ended up wishing it would just end..

After watching this messy, senseless and ludicrous flick I decided to go through some of the "critic reviews." These reviews are the more professional comments in the critic review section of IMDB.

First I agree with one of the reviews, "The more thought you give it the less sense it makes and the more the two concepts compete with one another." Basically this film is out of balance and makes absolutely no sense drawing in the good who don't deserve harm mixed and pulled in with a couple of bad eggs. This is what made the movie Very poor. The ending was horrible because it was unfair and also messy and nonsensical. There could be a better plot but the director and writer missed that Apple. It left me thinking to myself why in the world would it end like this. And no it's not an original horror flick because I've seen probably two others that are similar to this cyclical sadistic confusing and unfair evil mix. Do I recommend it? Not at all. It's truly not a good movie.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to see a Phase 4 film that I actually liked!

Despite it being billed as a low budgeted, straight to video movie, it delivered! Not only was it scary but it has a great twist and ending!

You would do yourself a great disservice by judging this movie too early or based on negative reviews.

It is dark, scary and has a realistic plot that is easy to relate to. Marc Singer did an excellent job at a dual "role".

Watching this movie will make you never want to go house hunting again and if you do, you will be sure to bring extra clothes and food!

PROS it is an original idea, I've never seen another plot that is similar to the story line in this flick. The actors often do a fair job with weak dialog and scene construction, Sometimes the acting is very good. The story is very difficult to read into. it is not predictable in most instances. You do try and figure out what the ^&*% is going on with the characters. The end was strong

CONS it is too often slow the time-line is not believable, The story need more supporting scenes and less slow build up. It had more than enough slow scenes The story line takes a few odd turns that didn't seem to support it. For such an original story they could have easily blended int supporting scene content.

SUM A good idea that was not fully realized in the screen play We ended up FFWD to the end because it was so darn slow. Not worth watching the whole things through. Sorry

Very interesting story, based on Jean-Paul Sartre's - No Exit, I guessed it would be similar to Dead End (2003)

I'll be honest, the acting seemed a little forced and as a whole it didn't seem as well put together as I'd hoped... I wasn't sure whether to continue past the 10 minute mark.

I'm glad I did though.

Apart from a few plot holes and the aforementioned acting... Its a pretty good movie.

The premise is brilliant, if not a little predictable; but I think it could have been executed better.

Still worth a watch though.

House hunting is one of the most unique and best horror movies that I have ever seen. This movie is like no other horror movie I have seen before, taking on a bizarre chain of events it is completely original. The best way to watch this movie is to know nothing about the story in it, you should go into it fresh minded and you will be pleasantly surprised. There are small similarities of The Shining, Evil Dead and The Cabin In The Woods. The only thing that I would fault about this movie is the lack of confusion and natural reaction somebody would have if faced with the situation that the characters did in the movie. This is a must see movies and will leave any horror fan more than satisfied.

I do like low budget movies that have an interesting take or story to tell. This is one of those cases. It will not be everyones cup of tea, but it does have the quality (acting and script wise) to keep those interested that engage and actually care like I do.

There may be a lot of questions this raises and a lot of things may feel a bit ... weird to say the least (yes characters do act strange - then again who is to tell, what anyone would do in a crazy situation like that?). Interesting take and interesting movie, with quite a few shockers and twists to go along with that.

The lack or budget is apparent from the off: no real special effects, no great sets and no big name actors (unless you remember the eighties sci-fi show 'V' or Beastmaster, in which case you'll recognise the aged Marc Singer).

It centres on two families who both decide to look at the same house on the same day. They're both thinking of buying it. However, once they get there, they find they can't get out.

What follows are the typical revelations about their pasts and motives, plus the odd chopping up of various cast members and the obligatory creepy kid who seems to turn up in every modern horror film.

Based on its budget, it's not that bad. Or at least it could have been much worse. If you're into horror films and aren't looking for anything that's too much of a classic, you could do worse than watch this for an hour and a half. The cast put everything they have into their parts and this is a rare high among the sea of straight-to-DVD B-movies you find out there.

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