GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
G Schelske
Hollywood has not been kind to movies of faith. Christian film makers have tried and tried again to evangelize through faith-based-movies. With Nintendo quality CGI (remember your old NES?)and only slightly better acting these movies have fared less than well in the past. i.e. Left Behind, Fireproof or The Omega Code.Enter Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. Both are N.Y. TIMES bestsellers and modern day gods in the realm of Christian fiction. Dekker, a respected suspense author teamed up with supernatural / thriller writer Peretti to write what some call, Stephen King's version of the Gospels. The book sold nearly half a million copies and jumped from page to screen in only two years.Surprisingly Kirk Cameron didn't show up in this one. Was he even considered for casting? Doubtful. Instead, director Robbie Henson delivers an almost evil-to-the-core Christian horror film with an experienced roster of staff and actors. This is by no means an evangelical film and the theology is a little deep, but it is a classic tale of good vs. evil.Dekker's and Peretti's tale pits two young couples against the sins of their past which take form as an evil house. Sounds crazy but it works. Eerily, the house knows its inhabitants and their sins of guilt. Using their past against them the house manipulates them into killing off one another. The house thinks, responds and creates hellish illusions trying to bring down its unwanted visitors.What does this have to do with Christianity? Each of us are held captive by our own sins: Satan uses the sins of our past to bind us and consume us. By design, the sins of our past haunt us and become the sins of our present. Its no longer a matter of walking away. We need a savior. In HOUSE that savior came in the form of a young girl named Susan who unselfishly and unfairly accepted an untimely death to atone for the sins of those who surrounded her. Sound familiar? Christ gave himself in the same way for sins he never committed.The movie is far from brilliant but light years ahead of any Christian based movie so far. The bottom line is simple, its a movie that will scare the Hell out of you.
Desiree
I was excited to see house because it seemed pretty creepy from the previews. I should have learned by now that scary movies are not all that scary.House was basically a mixture of House of Wax and any other crappy "terrifying" teen movie you can think of. The plot did not make sense at all. I don't know if you can even call it a plot. At first it was set up as a serial killer movie and then out of nowhere there were demons or ghosts, which was baffling to me.The house or the Tin Man, not quite sure, fed off of the couple's fears or past experiences. Throughout the film we were present with a few small mysteries that were never explained. I don't know if the writers forgot to add it in or they just didn't care to add logic. But I didn't care enough to be bothered by that.There was a character, Susan that held a fairly important role. Her reason for being, who she was, or where she came from was never explained. House wasn't scary and it didn't make much sense. Is there any scary movie with an actual plot out there?I have been on the search for the scariest movie ever made and have been failing miserably. Though, Paranormal Activity was probably the best I have seen thus far. The Ring scared me to death but I know I am just an idiot and scared myself. The Exorcist is too old school. Didn't do it for me.Send me recommendations of what you believe to be a truly successful terrifying film.
JoeB131
but I've seen this one before! There was this movie called "Reaker" a few years ago that had exactly the same setup. People involved in an auto accident find themselves in a surreal situation where they are pursued by a menacing force. They wake up to discover that they were at the gates of hell, and the other people who failed to get away were in fact "killed" in the accident.Still, the setup is kind of interesting, where a married couple with a troubled past are the protagonists of the situation. The movie drags in places, but otherwise isn't that bad for a direct to DVD. It has Michael Madsen in it, but he isn't as insufferable as he normally is.
caledvwlch79
If you're reading this comment you've probably already know what this film is about so I'll skip all that and talk about my biggest problem with the movie.There was not one single second that I actually cared about these characters. The book has the exact same problem. There's the squabbling couple, the slutty girl, and the angry guy. We're told in the movie that they're "guilty as sin" but you're never really sure what of. The couple lost a daughter and are fighting. Slutty girl was abused as a child... it's not clear why she's "guilty" only that she's now promiscuous. Let's not forget angry guy. He was abused by his father and he yells a lot.I'm pretty sure the intent of the book and the movie was to demonstrate that these four people, hurt though they may be, have turned around and caused their own destruction on others.Of course, we never really get to see anybody before they get to the house. So we don't really know why we should care or more to the point, what they're even guilty of to deserve the treatment they get. Would've been nice if the film actually let us get to know these people, just a little and actually show how they have hurt others. That way, when the demon rednecks pronounce their guilt we know why, and any revelations the characters come by about themselves would actually resonate with the audience.Really though, what can I expect when this is the problem with the book too. We get a little bit more detail in the book (as well as a bold evangelistic message) but the characters really only serve to occupy the freaky house gimmick. It's like they just put the four character names in a hat and picked out two to survive. That's great for your average horror movie, but not for something that claims to be something more substantial.
