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Fear
House

by Shrub 3/30/08
Fear House
is an independent haunted house movie that advance advertising has billed
as “a clear alternative to the glut of ‘torture
porn’ on the market, with a style reminiscent of classic horror films
from the 1980's.” I’d call that pretty accurate as Fear House
does follow the distinct 80’s formula of: start with a quick kill and
then introduce a cast of victims to be knocked off one by one as the story
unfolds.
Fear House
isn’t a stalk and slash flick, but an above average, low budget haunted
house chiller. The first half-hour flails around a bit with awkward dialog
and bland jokes, but this is just a get-to-know the victims portion of the
story. Once we get into the vengeful ghost action, the movie rights itself
nicely. Fear House then runs the horror gauntlet: creepy, scary and gory.
The story involves
an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere that teenagers like to go to and
make out in (it’s more fun when the ghosts watch!) until an author moves
in. The realtor tells the new resident that the boarded up basement is unfinished,
but she still takes it and the realtor high-tails it out of there. Months
later a couple of carloads drive out to the house after not hearing from the
author (Samantha), to see if she is ok. They get inside easily enough, only
to find a wigged out Samantha under a table. She eventually comes around enough
to tell the story of the house.
The house has
a history of a, uh, broken family, a father who killed his wife and then boarded
his own daughter down in the basement. The daughter, Anna Lisa, has never
left the house (Ooh goody, the little girl ghost trick, now we’re having
fun). Before we know it, the house goes to work on the gang, and is pulling
dark skeletons out of their closets in between the slicing and dicing.
I had a good
time watching Fear House. The gimmick is that it knows what you’re afraid
of and plays on that. It loses this a little (I was expecting everyone to
be killed by their biggest fear, one by one, and while partially true, that’s
not exactly how it turns out) but I didn’t find it to be affected adversely
for it. It definitely gets better as it goes along so don’t give up
on this one. We end up with a decent story, some pretty good scares and that
other 80’s horror staple, an ending with a twist.
[
Fear
House Website ]
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