House of Darkness

I haven't really seen a horror movie like this before. It's a small cast and dialog driven. The type that could be a stage play. The writing could have been a bit better, but the acting makes up for it. Would love to see more horror movies like this!

It's in a similar vein to Big Kahuna. Justin Long and Kate Bosworth do fantastic jobs as always. The other 2 actresses I didn't recognize, but they delivered as well. Suspense is steadily built in masterful ways that keep you ready for the shoe to drop at any moment, or possibly not at all!

I'm not sure why people seemed to dislike this so much. I almost wanted to give it a 10 just to counter the unreasonable hate, but in the end I had to grade it where it was.

I've seen this described as being like 'a 10 minute short stretched out to 90 minutes... with a 1 minute payoff'. That's a pretty good description. I've also seen some say it feels more like a stage play. That's a good description too. I didn't hate the movie. I like Justin Long and thought he was excellent (he pretty much carries the thing). And I actually thought the dialogue that many complain about was well-written, and well-delivered by both Long and Kate Bosworth, conveying the sometimes toe-curling awkwardness of the situation.

BUT... whilst the dialogue was okay for a first watch, it would put me off a rewatch. And it does go on TOO long without some kind of action or, y'know, HORROR! It's also very clear, very early what the reality of the situation is - even before the giveaway character names. When the (admittedly nicely done) big reveal does come, it's far too late.

I'll give a shoutout for the camerawork, lighting, set design, and costumes.

As a one time watch it's a 5.5/10.

I would love to know the age of people who rate this film as a 1 or 2 and say comments like 'Skip it' or 'boring waste of time.' Maybe these people need to stay off their phones while watching a conversation-led film.

I live in the UK, do not work in the industry, have zilch to do with the film or trying to promote it. However, after giving it a go, regardless of the poor reviews, I thought it was really good, in fact its maybe a 7.5.

You can sort of sense from the early dialogue what path the film might take but what kept me gripped was the mystery of wondering how we were going to get there. I found the dialogue excellent. It was intriguing and the exchanges between the main characters made me drawn into the room with them.

This is not a gorefest from minute one, nor is it a bloodbath but its highly sexually charged, with dark undertones that permeate the film from very early on. The acting is top notch as well.

We're introduced to a couple who have literally just met earlier, in a bar, and the male character Hap has given Mina a lift home. They seem to like each other, and thus the dialogue/wordplay begins.

For me, it was absolutely fascinating to watch, i was riveted. Saying that, I did watch it in the dark, no interruptions, and I had headphones on and it just ramped up the creepy atmosphere.

And this film does build up. Its like a coil thats getting tighter and tighter, and even tho you 'know' whats going to happen, you still need to watch.

My only criticism would be that, after all that tension and impending doom, the end seemed to peter out a little maybe, and it ended too quickly. But, saying that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and providing you're not an impatient child, and you can listen to dialogue , and read between the lines, then hopefully you'll find it as enjoyable as I did.

It must be tedious to write movies like this one: the ending is obvious from the premises, so the remaining time must be filled by characters' development.

Unfortunately, the evil one (Long) is not evil at all, and the heroines (the vampires) are not heroic. Instead, they all share bad lines.

After 90' of watching, one gets the long predicted ending - and there could have been an interesting plot twist: e.g. The victim could have proved himself as a vampire hunter and kill the monsters...but this is simply forbidden in Hollywoke.

More, if the movie had not involved a male dismemberment, it would never be done.

So pathetic.

I really enjoyed this actually! Justin Long and Kate Bosworth are some seriously good actors. They really put on a show! I understand there was a ton of conversation and it's pretty fair to say this was incredibly slow. I can understand that. But sometimes slow is good. This held pretty solid build up and while it was predictable I also considered this to be a classic long stretch of tales from the crypt type of story. So I really enjoyed the aspect of that and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen. Even if I knew there was clearly something off about Mina you still don't know exactly what it may be! The ending was great and a classic! The acting was also incredibly good as expected.