Dark House

All those title changes, how is one supposed to keep track of them? I did watch this movie at a Festival and it was called "Dark House". You can still find it with that title here, but apparently it changed. Maybe the buzz was not so good and they decided to change it to get a fresh clean sheet/start? Who really knows? And who really knows what's up with horror movies starting off strong and getting weaker by the minute ... like this one right here.

It's a shame, because the mood this creates at the beginning suggests it would (and could) be stronger than it actually is. But it falls (and fails thereby) into clichés and ridiculous twists, that will leave your head spinning faster than Linda Blairs head in the Exorcist (not in a good way obviously).

All us reviewers should state some qualifier up front so folks know whether to keep reading. So I'll say I think Jeepers Creepers is a modern masterpiece so you'll know where I'm coming from. I also really liked JC2 but what the hell happened to Victor Salva after that? Rosewood Lane was poor and Jeepers 3 sucked so badly it almost pulled my own soul out! This film, it turns out, was made between those two turkeys ( I didn't even know it existed) and it's his 2nd best film. But what got me the most is how many callbacks there are to the Creeper-verse. Intentional or is he just repeating himself? It's an interesting film (with a weak beginning) but once it gets going it takes turn after turn into surprising territory - just like Jeepers Creepers. And then there's the sixties vehicle driven by the leads - I'm not a car nut but its almost a clone of the impala from the earlier film and the passenger even does the same hand movement out the window; the coat and general mien of the Tobin Bell character harks to the Creeper, as does the location; there's a pivotal diner scene; creatures are driven over again and again and jump back up; even some shots and staging is almost identical to JC (spin out the vehicle on the old road shots anyone!). And even though it gets somewhat sloppy toward the end (a lotta strands to tie together) when it hits its mark its really very good (creepy, axe dragging figures scuttling about is a particularly original vision) and it hits more than it misses. A few of the FX are pretty bad but it doesn't outweigh the positives and, all in all, I'll happily watch this again next Halloween season.

A friend and I decided we would watch a low budget horror flick and I chose this because I saw that it was rated 4.7. It was a lot better than we anticipated. There were a couple of bumpy spots and the acting was mediocre. The movie seemed like it had too many different elements till the end. The ending brought all the weird points together. All in all I felt it was an enjoyable movie. Well worth the watch!! :)

I would suggest this movie to anyone looking for a inexpensive horror movie done right. The camera work was done very well, the special effects were fairly good but you could tell it was fake. I am glad the ending for this movie was good and tied the entire movie by the end of the flick.

Victor Salva is up to his old tricks in DARK HOUSE, another predictable horror yarn featuring buff young men who invariably disrobe at some point for the role. I'm surprised that Salva still manages to find work in Hollywood, not because of his private indiscretions (to put it mildly), but because his films are just so pitiful. CLOWNHOUSE, the two JEEPERS CREEPERS flicks, they've all been below par and DARK HOUSE is no exception.

The house of the title is an ancestral home sought out by a group of faceless teenage types without an ounce of charisma between them. The house has some magical properties including the ability to move at will, but other than that there's little of interest here, apart from the requisite bloodshed. No scares, no atmosphere, just monotony. Lesley-Anne Down has a minor part and there's a nicely complex turn from SAW's Tobin Bell, but otherwise DARK HOUSE is a mess and nothing you've not seen before.

It starts off pretty well, don't they all though, then it gets a bit rushed and disjointed in the middle to end. They could have run another half hour in the second half to explain what the hell was going on a bit more. Not a bad movie though.