Heather (Lindsay Smith) and Steve (Ryan Kotack) are in love. As they take in the day with a tour of the Niagara Falls region (while Loverboy plays over the assortment of images) they seem like they are on top of the world. And then
..
Drugged, abducted and secured in a solid concrete bunker in the middle of nowhere, Heather and Steve awaken to unfamiliarity of their new setting. Confused and disoriented and with only the smallest of windows to provide them with light, Heather and Steve soon learn that they have been captured as part of a sick diabolical imprisoner who communicates to the couple through a landline phone placed within their cell. As voiced by Henry Rollins, the voice on the other end of the phone will run the pair through challenges and rewards the duo with combinations to cases located within the cell that include items that will keep them alive. But for how long? In the House of Files was directed by Gabriel Carrer whose most notable credit prior to this entry was 2011's If a Tree Falls – a film we were hardly kind to in our review.
But In the House of Flies keeps things simple and the result in a highly recommendable psychological thriller that borrows from more familiar horror films such as Saw and 13 Sins.
We never do find out the motive behind their captors intentions. And that's a good thing. There is no backstory of how they were abused as a child or had a traumatic experience in a basement themselves leading them to a motive that is undeniably malevolent. Sometimes, people are just evil. Plain and simple. And we appreciated how In the House of Flies didn't try too hard to give us a reason why everything was occurring around our protagonists.
The confinement to the concrete bunker allowed for a considerable chilling claustrophobic feel that worked to the film's benefit and audiences will strive for air and sunlight as much as the two central characters as a result of the film's authentic setting.
If we had one thing of the not-so-kind sort to say about In the House of Flies is that it felt like it had been done before. Might not have been done better but the film didn't feel as original as we would have hoped in its attempt to rise so prominently among its peers.
Still, In the House of Files is a good film and you would not be doing yourself a disservice to your watching time allotment if you are able to seek it out and give it a shot.
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