The Beach House

'The Beach House' is the perfect type of film to know as little about as possible before going in. I knew basically nothing about it and it made it an absolute treat. Some could call the first half of the film slow, and they'd probably be right, but I loved it. It did what so few horror movies do and took the time to let us care about the characters and their fate. For a cast of relative unknowns I thought the cast were terrific. The main couple were nothing flashy, but they were likeable and realistic enough to get onboard with.

The film features some very clever foreshadowing. It was hard to fully appreciate all of it at the time, whilst knowing so little about what the future of the film had in store, but in retrospect it was very clever. I really didn't know what direction the film was going to go in. It holds its cards close to its chest for quite a while. The path that it does ultimately go down has not always been my favourite genre of film in the past, but I really liked the way 'The Beach House' went about it.

The film has a very strange ending, that I think makes sense, but I also suspect is not going to be to everyone's liking. It was a bold way to end the film though, and like it or not you should at least give it respect for that much. I had a good time with 'The Beach House' and would recommend it as one to check out.

This is a genuinely creepy low budget horror but the horror is held back by a confusing series of plot points and ideas that are never really tied together. A young couple heads to a family beach house to get away from things only to find an older couple also staying there. They get along okay until a series of strange events seems to lead to an unexplained infection that slowly progresses through the group. Things get a little trippy and the viewer faces the same struggles as the characters finding it difficult to know what is real. There are various possible sources for the infection and its unclear whether they are interconnected or unrelated. One characters explanation of her study goals seems like some Obvious exposition to educate the viewer on a possible source of the infection. The cast were fairly good and they helped to build the creepiness but the direction left things a little too confusing for real horror to build. Worth a watch but could have been better.

If you're not into genre movies, this is not for you. And I am not talking about teenagers horrors films, that are filled with cheap jump scares and special effects, that actually don't work at all. This movie is for audiences that enjoy the ride of building an atmosphere, escalating this until you really are ready to its final destination. While this is not an unforgettable horror film, it will really catch your attention and makes you feel uncomfortable again and again from the beginning, where it depicts common yet weird social situations, till the climax and the conclusion of the story, with some scary dreamlike moments. Ignore the low rating given by some viewers and give to this movie a chance.

The beach house adheres to a lot of the classical sci-fi and horror tropes, it's reminiscent of alien and the mist. But it manages to surprise you enough to keep you entertained and tense. The special effects are well done, the creatures mysterious but familiar enough to make you believe they could exist. The strong female lead and the aesthetics are a plus.

As I stumbled upon the 2019 movie "The Beach House" in 2021, I had no idea what I was in for here. But I have to say that the movie's synopsis sounded interesting enough, so I opted to give writer and director Jeffrey A. Brown's movie a chance.

And while "The Beach House" started out adequately enough, the movie quickly shifted gears and went into a stalemate. For a long period of time as the storyline progressed, nothing happened. And I must admit that the movie was quickly starting to lose its grip on me as I grew bored. And then out of nowhere, writer and director Jeffrey A. Brown fully turns the movie around and things go from being bored to just being downright strange. And the events that started to happen, definitely had potential, but by then it was just too little, too late, and the damage had been irrevocably been done.

"The Beach House" was a movie of wasted potential. The storyline had some rather interesting elements to it, but the build up of the movie was just not working for me, and I ended up rather bored actually as the storyline went forward with snail speed.

The movie has a small cast ensemble, so there is an increased amount of pressure on the actors and actresses to deliver profound acting performances that will carry the movie. And I will say that the handful of actors and actresses in the movie actually managed to do rather well, especially with the severe limitations imposed on them by a lack of proper script and storyline. Liana Liberato carried the movie quite well, and it was definitely nice to see Jake Weber on the screen.

If writer and director Jeffrey A. Brown had introduced the strange events a lot earlier in the movie, then "The Beach House" would have been a much more enjoyable movie.

The ending of the movie was just one that was so cliché that it almost physically hurt to witness.

My rating of "The Beach House" lands on a mere three out of ten stars.