House on Eden

Pleasantly surprised. I knew the actors were content creators, but I'd only seen short clips here and there. I liked Kris in the Smosh Reddit episode, so I decided to check out the movie. The acting felt really natural, and I felt like I was along for the ride with 3 friends.

There were three solid jump scares that actually got me good but I do wish we got more background on the setting lore. My biggest issue was the overuse of handheld camera shots at the beginning. The constant motion started to give me a headache so I had to close my eyes.

Still, for a first-time writer and director, this was a fun and impressive debut. You can tell she has some interesting ideas.

I don't understand why people feel the need to repeat the work of others 25 years later and call themselves a writer and a director? It's 2025, it's clearly obvious Kris Collins stumbled upon the Blair Witch Project and decided to put together some lame trash of her own. There's is nothing original here. It's a complete rip off from other found footage style movies, think also, REC or the American version Quarantine. Everything is overacted and unbelievable. The movie shots are abysmal. This isn't 90s and shooting everything with 480i resolution cameras is a cheap way out for a lack of vision in horror story telling. Trying to create tension with out of focus cameras and cheap thudding sounds and a obscure backstory into religion is overplayed. How did this even get greenlit for the big screen is beyond me. I was so happy the movie was short.

I hate writing this because I love these two women, but I could not get into this movie. The writing wasn't bad, it was just a bit juvenile and cheesy in many places, especially the beginning. I see what they were going for here, but it wasn't executed well. The hide-and-seek part was really weird.

And then it just goes downhill further. No memorable jump scares or spooky moments, and the ending has been done so many times already. It felt very Paranormal Activity.

Honestly, I could see them nailing a comedy/horror. Something like Dale and Tucker VS Evil or Army of Darkness. I want Kris to keep at it. Very creative person. Just needs to focus on what she's good at, which is comedy, and then fuse that with your interest in horror.

Don't give up!

Holy motion sickness, batman. If unsteady camera work makes you ill, skip this movie. I know they were trying to go for "authentic" found-footage, but they erred on the side of far too much shaky-cam running and it got to the point where I was seasick and honestly baffled (and getting increasingly annoyed) by how much time the cameras were out of focus.

Anyways, we watch as a group of ghost-investigating youtube vloggers head towards some little-known abandoned haunted house they NEVER give any background on, but somehow believe will be their biggest break and best video ever. We are then treated to a pretty classic haunted house story, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

There are some glaringly odd choices which reveal the budget and the makers' lack of experience/ nuance. Such as the vloggers walking to the 'derelict' house on an obviously-just-mowed-and-maintained trail, and the house being absolutely, immaculately clean, with fresh linens and pristine, well cared for, potted flowers; the artistic flop of having all of the characters use huge, bulky cameras with different resolutions instead of their phones; an inability to get the viewers to like and care for the characters; some plot gaps; and a fumbling of the ending typical for this genre.

But there are some genuinely creepy moments and the acting and editing are better than normal for this kind of movie. If this were just a freebie on Prime or found on a random TV channel with completely unknown actors, people would think it was pretty good. But the 'hollywood' hype and expectation for what is, essentially, a self-produced, amateur movie, are likely leading to many finding it disappointing.

So despite the flaws, this slots in as a solid-enough example of its type and a decent option for someone wanting a low-budget, classic-style haunted house type movie to watch.

I very much love the story of YouTubers growing their brand, establishing themselves, and making enough money to create a passion project such as this movie. This is no easy thing to do. They absolutely deserve props for the hard work. Hopefully they learned a lot in the making of this movie and will use that knowledge to keep getting better.

Having said that, they could benefit the most from an editor. House of Eden was filled with unnecessary shots, loooooong scenes, stuttering story telling that was obvious within the first few minutes where this was all going to go. Someone needed to stand up and say "This shot doesn't move the story forward." or "This shot is confusing and not conveying the message you might want." or "This is an ancient and tired plot point told 1000 times. Surely there is a more unique way to tell a Lilith story." Hell, they straight up had a direct scene from The Blair Witch Project.

Kris did great being super annoying and demanding. Celina sold her gross scene well and in general added decent flavor. Jason-of-Two-First-Names was fine, if trying a little too hard.

Keep going y'all!