"Fear House" is a typical and overall average haunted house effort.
**SPOILERS**
Going on a drive, friends Anthony Ballard, (Matthew Stiller) Fiona Bloom, (Olivia Price) Mortimer Gladstein, (Matthew Montgomery) Eva Tinski, (Meredith Barnett) Rhett, (Ryan Caldwell) and Suzette, (Kiersten Hall) arrive at a secluded house to fins his missing sister Samantha Ballard, (Aleece Jones) who had rented it to write her new book. Seeing something is wrong immediately, they soon learn that an evil spirit who died hundreds of years ago has taken over the house and preventing them from leaving, yet none of them believe the story. After they are each exposed to various situations around that house they all believe to be their individual worst nightmares come to life, they accept the story and try whatever they can to ensure that they stop the spirits' rampage and get out of the house alive.
The Good News: This one had some rather good stuff to it at times. One of the main pluses here is the film manages to do a superb job of placing rational fears into the set-ups that they are just quite freaky at times when they land perfectly, which is the perfect solution to these situations. The first walk-through of the house, with the spider-filled fuse-box during the blackout and the cut on the hemophiliac, which leads to several more great gags including a hallucinatory spurting wound into an empty sink to fill it up with blood as well as a later bit of suspense with a falling can of nails, is quite creepy and starts it off nicely before building to the bigger ones later. Those are the best part of the film, mainly the upstairs segments as there's two really great moments. The first one, in the bathroom, features the ghostly father appearing to torment the victim before falling into a full-bathtub full of blood before a ghostly sister rises out, these alerting others and forcing a tense resuscitation effort. A later continuation, where they are sensually felt-up by a ghost hand before appearing behind them in a creepy face is quite nicely done, and mixes in some eroticism as well. The second big upstairs one, the other victim alone in the bedroom before the big reveal with the ghost in the room tying them to a chair before being rocked by flashing images, is a pretty nifty sequence and makes for a couple big moments. Other big suspenseful scenes occur in the basement, where the darkened-staircase-descending opening, along with the eerie voices in the distance, create a fantastic backdrop for the later action where the creatures found are perfectly chilling, the different chanting and dialogues engaged with the ghost-girl are a great trap for the zombies emerging to engage them from out-of-nowhere, and that's a fine moment. The wheelchair sequence later on is one of the film's most inventive scenes, where the crazed actions that are clearly-inhuman are just thrilling, the chasing around the house is creepy and the final payoff is spectacular. The first encounter throws some action into the proceedings with its dog-attack in the car followed by the electrical-wiring shock, and the back-story flashback does the same with regard to its storytelling actions. The finale is one of the creepiest parts to this, with the blowing wind, the attacks by the house and the others, and the final fates are just great. The last plus to this is the kills, which are quite good, from a decapitation, a body burnt to a crisp, multiple impaling and a lynching. These here are the film's good parts.
The Bad News: This one had some pretty big problems to it that did hinder it somewhat. One of the biggest issues with this one is the fact that there are just not a whole lot of scenes that make much sense in the overall scope of the film. The purpose of the fire-taunting scene in particular is the biggest one, which is just outright confusing and is really questionable since there's so many questions around it. From the purpose of figuring out her fear, it would've been a lot easier to logically figure that out rather than in a way that would burn the entire house down and kill them all inside as the fear could've easily paralyzed them to the point of inactivity, and with the others upstairs at the time, it's a potentially deadly situation that comes across more as confusing than anything. Even the point of the ghost appearing in the bathtub during that flashback is quite strange, since that's the obvious route to go here, so setting it up as such with such a quick-cut scene that fails to generate its scare is a little strange and quite problematic. Other problems come from the film's rather slow pace, since it's all based on the fears materializing to generate the scares so there's a long stretch where the house does nothing and there's no supernatural activity at all during those scenes, leaving a lot of time without a whole lot going on and that's something which can drag the film out during the middle portion. The film's last flaws are its wraparounds, which are just plain weird. The opening ambush is a little strange in that there's no scares that come, despite the activities performed, because the cheesy effects give so much away that it's impossible to take them seriously, and the finale is just hampered by so much questionable actions that you leave the film at the very end more confused than anything, the wrong way to do so. These here are the film's problems.
The Final Verdict: While not a stand-out effort in the genre, this one has enough good parts that make it decent even though there's not a whole lot out there to really wow most. Recommended to haunted-house enthusiasts, low-budget connoisseurs or those interested, while those who aren't should heed caution.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity and Graphic Language
**SPOILERS**
Going on a drive, friends Anthony Ballard, (Matthew Stiller) Fiona Bloom, (Olivia Price) Mortimer Gladstein, (Matthew Montgomery) Eva Tinski, (Meredith Barnett) Rhett, (Ryan Caldwell) and Suzette, (Kiersten Hall) arrive at a secluded house to fins his missing sister Samantha Ballard, (Aleece Jones) who had rented it to write her new book. Seeing something is wrong immediately, they soon learn that an evil spirit who died hundreds of years ago has taken over the house and preventing them from leaving, yet none of them believe the story. After they are each exposed to various situations around that house they all believe to be their individual worst nightmares come to life, they accept the story and try whatever they can to ensure that they stop the spirits' rampage and get out of the house alive.
The Good News: This one had some rather good stuff to it at times. One of the main pluses here is the film manages to do a superb job of placing rational fears into the set-ups that they are just quite freaky at times when they land perfectly, which is the perfect solution to these situations. The first walk-through of the house, with the spider-filled fuse-box during the blackout and the cut on the hemophiliac, which leads to several more great gags including a hallucinatory spurting wound into an empty sink to fill it up with blood as well as a later bit of suspense with a falling can of nails, is quite creepy and starts it off nicely before building to the bigger ones later. Those are the best part of the film, mainly the upstairs segments as there's two really great moments. The first one, in the bathroom, features the ghostly father appearing to torment the victim before falling into a full-bathtub full of blood before a ghostly sister rises out, these alerting others and forcing a tense resuscitation effort. A later continuation, where they are sensually felt-up by a ghost hand before appearing behind them in a creepy face is quite nicely done, and mixes in some eroticism as well. The second big upstairs one, the other victim alone in the bedroom before the big reveal with the ghost in the room tying them to a chair before being rocked by flashing images, is a pretty nifty sequence and makes for a couple big moments. Other big suspenseful scenes occur in the basement, where the darkened-staircase-descending opening, along with the eerie voices in the distance, create a fantastic backdrop for the later action where the creatures found are perfectly chilling, the different chanting and dialogues engaged with the ghost-girl are a great trap for the zombies emerging to engage them from out-of-nowhere, and that's a fine moment. The wheelchair sequence later on is one of the film's most inventive scenes, where the crazed actions that are clearly-inhuman are just thrilling, the chasing around the house is creepy and the final payoff is spectacular. The first encounter throws some action into the proceedings with its dog-attack in the car followed by the electrical-wiring shock, and the back-story flashback does the same with regard to its storytelling actions. The finale is one of the creepiest parts to this, with the blowing wind, the attacks by the house and the others, and the final fates are just great. The last plus to this is the kills, which are quite good, from a decapitation, a body burnt to a crisp, multiple impaling and a lynching. These here are the film's good parts.
The Bad News: This one had some pretty big problems to it that did hinder it somewhat. One of the biggest issues with this one is the fact that there are just not a whole lot of scenes that make much sense in the overall scope of the film. The purpose of the fire-taunting scene in particular is the biggest one, which is just outright confusing and is really questionable since there's so many questions around it. From the purpose of figuring out her fear, it would've been a lot easier to logically figure that out rather than in a way that would burn the entire house down and kill them all inside as the fear could've easily paralyzed them to the point of inactivity, and with the others upstairs at the time, it's a potentially deadly situation that comes across more as confusing than anything. Even the point of the ghost appearing in the bathtub during that flashback is quite strange, since that's the obvious route to go here, so setting it up as such with such a quick-cut scene that fails to generate its scare is a little strange and quite problematic. Other problems come from the film's rather slow pace, since it's all based on the fears materializing to generate the scares so there's a long stretch where the house does nothing and there's no supernatural activity at all during those scenes, leaving a lot of time without a whole lot going on and that's something which can drag the film out during the middle portion. The film's last flaws are its wraparounds, which are just plain weird. The opening ambush is a little strange in that there's no scares that come, despite the activities performed, because the cheesy effects give so much away that it's impossible to take them seriously, and the finale is just hampered by so much questionable actions that you leave the film at the very end more confused than anything, the wrong way to do so. These here are the film's problems.
The Final Verdict: While not a stand-out effort in the genre, this one has enough good parts that make it decent even though there's not a whole lot out there to really wow most. Recommended to haunted-house enthusiasts, low-budget connoisseurs or those interested, while those who aren't should heed caution.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity and Graphic Language