Director/s: Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote
Writer/s: Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote
Starring: Dylan Minnette, Piercey Dalton, Patricia Bethune, Sharif Atkins, and more.
The Intro:
As I scroll endlessly through my Netflix list of movies I want to watch, I first see a promotion banner for a movie called “The Open House”. After a bit more research, I find the film is led by Dylan Minnette (13 Reasons Why, Don’t Breathe) (Wow, that’s a bad combination of movie titles), whom of which I am a big fan of and I also had a bit of a fanboy moment when he interacted with me on Twitter. So unsurprisingly, I got excited and heavily anticipated catching this film when it was finally released on Netflix. It had all the right pieces of the puzzle, from my perspective. An actor I support, a Netflix exclusive, and a horror/thriller genre which has been doing well on Netflix. What could go wrong? Well it time for it to get Oberrated.
IMDB Summary:
“A teenager (Dylan Minnette) and his mother (Piercey Dalton) find themselves besieged by threatening forces when they move into a new house.”
The Oberrating:
EVERYTHING WENT WRONG… EVERYTHING. Okay, maybe not everything but damn near most everything. I guess I will just jump straight to what I consider are the good points of the film.
Dylan Minnette continues to be an under the radar favorite of mine. Quite possibly the only glowing point of this film. Despite limited lines, he did what he could with the material he was given. Under different circumstances, I would imagine his performance would have far exceeded what I received from him but nonetheless, a job well done. I remain a fan and am excited for his future in entertainment. (P.S. he has a band called The Wallows and they are dope.)
Aside from Dylan, the ending I have come to appreciate as well. Despite an overall negative film, I am a fan of films that leave endings with a certain kind of mystery or “piece the puzzle yourself” type style.
I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for those two good points to the film. Otherwise, I struggled through “The Open House”. Throughout the duration of the film, I found myself exhausted by the constant moronic moves the characters made throughout the film. You know, the typical “go into the spooky place alone” type stupid decisions. Not only was there the stereotypical horror movie decision-making, the film was also plagued by plot holes that did not add to any mystery element of the film but instead left me confused and angry as to why certain events happened.
Nonetheless, simply not a fan of this method of presenting an element of the film. It has worked in the past for other films but this one? Not so much.
The Wrap-Up:
My personal hype train ended very abruptly when this film came to its end. I tried to like it as much as I could but I ended up being disappointed. With just a bit of positives pulled from “The Open House”, the film was ultimately a negative experience donning a negative Oberrating. See it if you want a bad Netflix movie and are bored but ultimately, see it and form your own opinion. I would love to hear why someone would think it is a good flick.
Rating: 3/10
References:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7608028/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7608028/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
