House at the End of the Street

Lawrence of Suburbia.

A little better than its garbage reputation, as evidence by the support it got at the box office from its target audience, Mark Tonderais horror/thriller is safe genre film making. Theres no intelligence in the screenplay, no copious amounts of blood letting, the characters do dumb things and in truth it unfolds as a standard girl in peril movie. These things are what have led to it being savaged by critics, but backed by a trio of strong performances from Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue and Max Thieriot, boosted by a genuine narrative surprise and the fact that Tonderai is able to do the peril motifs with suspenseful impact, ensures House at the End of the Street is at least a decent enough time waster. 5/10

Does a killer prowl the neighborhood or is it just local lore?

A mother and daughter (Elisabeth Shue & Jennifer Lawrence) move into a Pennsylvania suburb where a nearby abode was the scene of a double murder four years earlier, committed by a deranged girl named Carrie-Anne. She was thought to have drowned, but her body was never found and local legend suggests that she prowls the eerie woods. Meanwhile her brooding brother (Max Thieriot) lives on the property and is maltreated by some of the residents. Gil Bellows plays an officer that befriends the mother and is sympathetic toward the despondent young man.

House at the End of the Street (2012) is a coming-of-age drama mixed with mystery and horror of the slasher variety, bu...