House of Thaddeus

I saw this as it was mis-advertised as a horror and let's be honest the front cover suggests that it is as well. House Of Thaddeus is anything but and would instead be considered a drama or a thriller maybe.

It tells the story of a middle aged couple who get a deal of a lifetime on a beautiful seven bedroom house. After the transaction they learn of it's dark history including a cult and a mass murder.

While the husband is dismissive his wife becomes nothing short of obsessed and it creates a wedge between them.

Beautifully shot, highly thought provoking and entirely original I can confidently say I'm suitably impressed by House Of Thaddeus and though I can appreciate the slow paced melodrama won't appeal to everyone I found it enjoyable

The ending was subpar sadly but the rest of the film makes up for it and has left me thinking about the film, the couple and what I'd have done in the same position.

Good stuff.

The Good:

Very original

Great performances

Fascinating

The Bad:

Very slow paced

Not what most would expect

Ending is questionable

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The house's history wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest bit

pay no mind to the low rating. this movie is quirky and good. I like the couple. And I like the back story to the house. Cliché but good. That old man made me think of Scary movie 2, but that's not meant as a slight to this film. You can see they made the best of their budget and those eye things look pretty ominous. So, me like. I don't know why, but I like that it doesn't do much with lighting to create atmosphere, actually letting all the atmosphere come from suggestion and not some Hollow-wood post edit lighting trick. It has that docu-drama look.

The premise is pretty standard: Couple leaves behind old life to embrace new life in a new home, only to find out new home has its own old and troubled past. "Tom" is the rational-minded teacher of science who dismisses much of what happens; "Claire" is the intuitive pianist who embraces much of what happens.

That said, the writing is well above what we find in the the standard haunted house flick. The same can be said for the acting in this micro-budget film, which is uniformly excellent (and I would give a special nod to both Joi Hoffsommer and William Kephart, who comes across rather convincingly as an extra-cranky Ron Howard type).

In the end, the film is rather non-committal about whether what we are seeing is natural or super-natural, as the "point" seems to be the dysfunction the home introduces into the marriage of Tom and Claire and how they deal with that dysfunction. To that end, House of Thaddeus almost appears to be a clever critique of how monstrous acts can be commodified, sold to and adopted by a very specific sector of the public, some of whom (like Claire) almost seem to embrace the horrors as giving some meaning to lives that are otherwise in need of some meaning or purpose.

It's a slow burn, but if you enjoy a more character-driven film, this might work for you.

Oh, and the soundtrack that includes both familiar pieces (Debussy's Claire de Lune) and original music by John Toenjes is quite tasteful and used to good effect.

This movie covers several issues: a couple moving into a house being unaware of it's dark past, a couple becoming increasingly divided by their differences in beliefs and priorities, and a woman's struggle to recover a sense of meaning and purpose in her life after being uprooted and suffering a disabling injury as her career was taking off.

One thing I liked immediately is that the movie avoided most of the standard horror movie clichés, like the requisite dark and stormy night, the creepy music, etc. I also liked that this story could be interpreted on more than one level - as a horror story of sorts, a murder mystery, or as a psychological exploration of the power of belief.

The film was extremely well-written. at times humorous, and the acting was wholly believable. The story was complex and kept me riveted throughout. There was enough mystery in the backstory to keep me wondering. The toll that the house exacted on a marriage was indeed tragic but, unlike the equally excellent and similar "Exhibit A", was made more heartbreaking by its less than certain conclusion.

Enjoyable, supernatural chiller. Low budget but remarkably avoids every cliche usually associated with the horror genre. Well paced and with an interesting story. Way, way above the average genre entry.