From A House On Willow Street
(2016)
The Darkside / Fat Cigar Productions : IFC Midnight
7 / 10
This is the kind of kick-in-the-pants the horror genre needed.
In a much-abused genre, it's difficult to add anything new so what writer and director Alastair Orr and co-writers Catherine Blackman and Jonathan Jordaan did was to change the situation and in doing so added a breath of fresh air to the genre.
Hazel, Ade, Mark, and James are habitual criminals in search of the elusive "Big Score". It's Hazel who has the idea to kidnap the daughter of her father's former partner. It was he who was responsible for her father losing his business while he gained all the power in the jewellery business.
Knowing there's a lot to be made the gang kidnap Katherine and take her to a warehouse to await her father paying the ransom. However, there's something wrong... Katherine's parents don't answer their phone or their cells... It's only when Ade and James return to the house that the mystery starts to reveal itself.
All the actors were respectable in their roles, though Carlyn Burchell as Katherine, Steven Jon Ward as Ade, and Zino Ventura as Mark were stronger in their portrayals. It was the story and the acting which made the movie for me as the direction was pretty average and didn't really add anything.
In fact, there was one scene that very nearly spoilt the entire movie for me and that was when the director decided to go slow motion to say look at my special effects aren't they nice(?) Who the hell uses slo-mo anymore(?) Then there was the decision to change a character's personality for the last segment of the film. Hazel, played strongly by Sharni Vinson suddenly becomes weak and continually scared. This makes her more like a stereotypical horror "Scream Queen". This happens so suddenly that I just stopped and wondered "What the Hell!?" There was no need for it and it weakened the story, character, and film. Bad Move.
There are also a few other minor inconsistencies that you may notice, though they don't hurt the film as much as the couple mentioned above.
Well worth a watch, even if it is only once. I may even watch this one again if it makes it onto any of the telly channels.
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