RG
Roberto Giacomelli
•The teenager Elissa moves with her mother Sarah to a new house in the suburbs.
The two are fleeing the chaotic life of Chicago and so the large house immersed in the forest, moreover bought at a good price, seems really an excellent opportunity to start over. But the people of the neighborhood tell the newcomers the terrifying legend that befalls that place: 7 years ago, right in the house across the street from where Elissa and Sarah moved, a terrible double murder occurred, a man and a woman were savagely massacred by Carrie Anne, their daughter with mental problems. The girl, however, fled into the surrounding woods and has not yet been found. Now, in the house of the massacre, lives Ryan, the older brother of Carrie Anne who at the time of the murder was not in the city, a shy boy and badly seen by his peers with whom Elissa immediately establishes a friendship. When people in the area start to disappear, the echo of the legend begins to be heard again.
This is the moment of Jennifer Lawrence, a twenty-two-year-old blonde who won an Oscar for Best Actress for "The Silver Linings Playbook". Having made a name for herself with the leading role in the thriller "A Cold Winter" and continuing to reap successes and praise with the role of young Mystique in "X-Men: First Class" and "The Hunger Games", Lawrence did not deny herself the opportunity to act in a low-budget teen-horror that, probably thanks to her, obtained a good result at the
box office. Let's assume that the success of "House at the End of the Street" is due to the protagonist, because when watching the film we realize that it is a thriller/horror decidedly out of time, one of those typically summer products that fit at least a decade ago in the teen horror wave that has now died out.
It's not that "House at the End of the Street" is a bad film, on the contrary, it has rhythm and a story as predictable (but really very!) as well structured, capable of sufficiently entertaining.
Among the strong points of this film, in addition to Lawrence who this time performs in tight tank tops so as to highlight not only her acting skills, we have a screenplay attentive to the delineation of the characters, in particular that of the protagonist, and to the construction of a story that manages to seem credible despite so many shameless concessions to the genre. The author of the subject is Jonathan Mostow, famous above all for his
directorial works "Breakdown - The Trap", "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and "Surrogates", while the script was handled by David Loucka, already author of the screenplay for the uneven "Dream House".
This is a film certainly aimed at a young audience, in line with the protagonists of the story, since the plot seeks to season with mystery and horror a tormented love story. On the one hand there is she, a beautiful girl courted by the "hunk" of the school who, however, turns out to be a perfect "jerk" at the first opportunity, on the other hand there is he, a problematic, introverted boy, harassed for the terrible event that has stained with blood the recent past of his family. And then there is her mother, played by an Elizabeth Shue in great shape, who accuses her daughter of having the syndrome of the nurse and opposes her relationship with Ryan, placing herself in fact among those who ghettoize the boy. Of course, said like this, it would seem like an adolescent love story like there are so many in the international panorama, but the film soon abandons this line to welcome with open arms all the imaginable of certain postmodern horror. Numerous are the clichés of horror, which take to the full from 90s slasher films, haunted house/maledicted places films, urban
legends and psycho-thrillers with a touch of modern torture porn. Between dialed-in scares and twists that are not hard to predict, "Hates - House at the End of the Street" contains so many things that a seasoned horror fan might find more with pleasure than with annoyance, given the way everything is mixed.
Very good the atmosphere, at times morbid and oppressive, with a direction entrusted to the young Englishman Mark Tonderai - already author of the recent "Hush - Panic" - who at first irritates with his music video style, but then is appreciated in the moments of tension building.
Nothing indispensable, therefore, "Hates - House at the End of the Street", a film that smells of already seen several times, but the good craftsmanship, a prestigious protagonist like Lawrence and a mannered but successful writing, make this typically summer thriller/horror an enjoyable viewing.
