Monday, November 10, 2008

Review: House


A husband and wife are on their way to marriage counseling, driving down a seemingly deserted back road. Wouldn’t you know it, their tires get slashed, and they have to make their way to a spooky, old bed and breakfast. Once in the house, they meet another couple that got their tires slashed as well and the very creepy owners of the house… oh, and did I mention the killer? Yeah, they also meet a killer named Tin Man that gives them his “house rules” (which aren’t too unreasonable… I mean, what’s so hard about giving him one dead body before sunrise?). Thus the frenzied terror begins.
House is based on the novel of the same name by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. With Dekker being my all time favorite author, I had pretty high hopes for this movie (even though Thr3e wasn’t so great). Luckily for the most part, I was not disappointed.
Let’s start with the acting. Surprisingly enough most of the acting was very good. There were a few spots where the actors just couldn’t seen to get into character, but I think that those spots were scripting problems than an acting problems. The characters of Jack, Betty, and Leslie were played particularly well, with each actor giving just enough to be realistic while not over doing it.
The same cannot be said for Tin Man. I was completely content with his performance as long as he had the mask on. But he looked like he had no clue what was going on when his mask was off. In fact the worst part of the movie is the line in which Tin Man says, “I’m pure evil… 100%”. If you have ever read House, Showdown, Saint, or Sinner, you know that is classic Dekker-ish line. But the way that it was portrayed was not at all how I would have envisioned it in the book. In the movie it just sounded incredibly cheesy… and not even the good kind of cheesy.
The entertainment factor of the movie is very high. If you want to see a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat with suspense and terror, than House is probably for you. It manages to drag you into the story and keep you entangled within it without using gore, sex, or language. It is a good, clean movie that is simply very disturbing.
The story of the movie is quite different from the story of the book. The movie feels like they took the basic story from the book and wrote their own new details. This is not a bad thing in my opinion. If they had tried to make the movie exactly like the book, they would have failed miserably. But since they went their own path, the story is comprehendible and works very well for the movie.
Perhaps the greatest achievement for House is that it does not feel like a “Christian” movie. Though the content most definitely does not warrant the R rating or even PG-13, it does feel like a hard PG-13. This is a real horror movie. When I’ve been talking to people about the movie, I tell them that it is both a Christian and horror movie. Almost everyone has responded with complete disbelief (I mean, who ever heard of a Christian horror movie?). We have the production to thank for this. House should make Christian media history as proof that Christian movies can be good and entertaining for both Christians and non-Christians alike.
Overall, House is a well produced, thoroughly entertaining movie. While it is most certainly not a great movie, it is a good movie… and quite frankly you don’t very many of those in regards to Christian movies. Not spectacular, but ground-breaking in its own right nonetheless.

4.6 out of 7

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