The Happy House

D.W. Young's "The Happy House" is a mixed bag. The actors and performances are quite charming and several notches above those found in most super-low budget HD features like this (the female lead is especially effective). It is also well shot and the sound is good.

The story starts as a variation on Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" with some "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" overtones. However, Young's screenplay is all set up and no follow through and degenerates from quirky to sub-par dull about ¾ of the way through. IMDb shows that Young's previous films and videos have been shorts, and the construction of this story bears that out—there's only about 45 minutes of story crammed into this hour and a half.

It's not mentioned on IMDb, but I'd bet that the majority of Young's experience is in live theatre and not film. I say this because he obviously has a talent for working with actors and getting the best out of them—this is an area where low budget films are usually at their weakest, but it is HH's greatest strength. Young also seems uncomfortable with film editing, which makes much of the movie seem like an adapted stage play. He prefers very long, static shots, as though the camera was set up at the edge of a stage and just left to run while the actors stand or sit in one spot and talk. While this does often show off the skills of the actors-- who interact in these dialog-heavy sequences with a rhythm and naturalness that rarely rings false— it doesn't allow the protracted scenes to be edited for pace and is undeniably boring from a visual standpoint. And when young does employ standard editing—over the shoulder shots or povs—they are clumsily handled, as if he didn't really want to insert them, but felt he had no choice. Also, when locations shift between sequences, the screen simply fades to black and then back up again, like a curtain falling and rising. However this technique seems less like a stylistic choice and more like an "I'm doing it this way because I don't know another way to get from here to there."

Anyway, I don't want to sound like I'm ragging on the film. Young does many, many things right. As I said before, he gets very good performances out of his actors (and we all know that horrible acting is usually a low budget film's major weakness).

This movie was just a third of a screenplay and one professional editor away from being a classic indie comedy-horror flick along the lines of Ti West's "The Innkeepers." I look forward to more from all the folks involved in "The Happy House."

This movie had a good story but the acting, lighting, editing, music and direction skills killed it. You could easily tell who had more experience in movie making than the rest. It was humorous at times and it had a taint of Hitchcock in it but not nearly enough. Had the actors been professional or perhaps skillfully directed it may have caught more attention, instead it made it laughable at times and the music was amateur. The house keeper was funny, her character led me to believe she was evil but I was wrong. The movie still had me interested, the tension toward the end kept me alert. It was a good attempt and I feel the cast all learned something from it to enhance their skills toward their next film.

I guess this film may not be for everyone, but as someone who likes quirky, I certainly did. It's not a bog standard horror, it's not a bog standard comedy, it's not even a bog standard comedy/horror. In this case it's very much the different characters that drive the film and it feels very much like a stage play at times. When I first started watching it, I will admit to considering turning it off and trying something else but I'm glad I stuck with it. I loved the mix of characters who all had their issues and, although some may question their realism, I think the way they acted throughout the film was in line with their slightly strange natures. This film kept me guessing as to who the killer was going to be as all the characters at the beginning (with the exception of the couple) seemed like prime candidates. All in all, I really enjoyed this and it held my attention to the end. If you like your films a little bit strange, a bit funny and a bit dark then give this a go.

Since they advertised this film as a "horror comedy" it might have been nice if the film makers had indeed included some horror and some comedy. Unfortunately all we get here is a few half-drawn characters and a sparse handful of horror movie clichés.

Long story short - an annoying New York couple stay at a B&B run by an annoying old woman and her dull son. There they play with their cell phones and tablets, meet a boring Swedish butterfly collector and then play with their electronic toys some more.

Once the "horror" starts, it's really hard to care about the fate of these dullards. But don't worry, they don't seem to care much either. And by the time this excursion into ennui sputters to a halt with all the impact of a wet firecracker, neither do we.

The writer, director, casting director, and actors are all disconnected. The dialog is forced. Every actor in this debacle could not even make it into a senior citizen's life insurance commercial. It's almost as if this was set in an antiquated upper New England play house with very little draw. All, through the movie, you anticipate that there will be a slip of the camera and catch a cue card. Lines are memorized to the point of death. No heart in this, no feeling, and overplayed theatrics. But for the language, minor gore, and sexual innuendos, this plays out like a Mormon independent film. The suspense soundtrack sounds as if the producer let a five year old relative have creative control out of pity. The bad language is also forced. It is as if they took acting cues from the word of the day in Pee Wee's Playhouse. It would be more convincing if at the end, there was a credit that explained that aliens from another planet tried to mimic human life in New England and this was their final product. Plays out like a very bad joke that has been grossly lost in translation. The trilling part of this movie was when it was finally over so that I could honestly review it. Believe me, I tried to like this, I wanted to believe it would get better, but there is no funny, no scary, and has all the trappings of a depressed teenagers attempt at a screenplay. As it hops around with little coherence, the plot is too predictable. Oh, did I mention that the soundtrack sounds as if it was done by a five year old? Has cinema gotten so low?