Warning: contains minor spoilers.
On Jan. 19, Netflix released a new original horror film “The Open House,” which follows the story of a mother and son moving into a house in the mountains.
The basic premise of the film is that after his father’s death, a teenager and his mother move to the maternal aunt’s vacation home a few hours away. However, since they are selling the house, every Sunday there is an “open house,” so Logan and his mother will have to leave for the day. During this time, strange things begin to happen, like intruders entering the house. It then becomes more apparent to them that they aren’t alone in the house, and that someone is trying (and succeeding) to terrify and hunt them.
The film stars “13 Reasons Why” actor Dylan Minnette who plays Logan Wallace, an incredibly uninteresting teenage boy who spends most of the movie walking around the house looking slightly suspicious, or complaining to his mother about how he hates living there. While the character has a reason to be feeling and acting the way that he does, seeing as his father recently was killed in a car accident, but even before the accident Logan is shown to be a very dull character when he is interacts with his parents.
One of the worst parts of this movie was the reoccurring “fake suspense” where there would be mysterious music playing and the camera would focus on a certain object as if to signify that something was about to happen, even when it’s not. This is very common for horror films and when done right and in small amounts can be extremely effective. However, this film used this technique so much that a fake out became expected, and when it was an actually scary scene, it seemed relatively underwhelming. This also led to a series of incredibly awkward shots of the camera just focusing on a towel hanging on the door, a candle, or some other object for way longer than necessary to build suspense that didn’t even lead to anything.
This honestly felt like it could have been any other bad horror movie just with a different coat of paint. In fact, if there were a template for a stereotypical horror film, “The Open House” would check every box. Dark and scary basement? Check. Creepy neighbor? Check. Mysterious unnamed murderer? Check. There really was nothing surprising about the film other than that Netflix thought people would actually enjoy watching it.
With an incredibly disappointing ending, a complete lack of likable characters, a predictable story, and tons of unanswered questions, “The Open House” doesn’t have a lot going for it. For someone looking for a compelling horror film, this is definitely not the one to choose. However, for someone just looking to make fun of a horror film, this one offers plenty of material.
2/10
Grace Becker // News Editor
