Movie Review--House

"God came to my house, and I killed him.  I will kill anyone who comes into my house, like I killed God."
--Tin Man, House


Based on a horror-thriller novel coauthored by authors Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, the movie House is superior to many Christian films from a production value standpoint, although it fails to actually become something great.  Of course I'll still watch and interact with Christian projects as long as they are superior to the expected results Christian filmmaking!  Which isn't saying much in itself, but this movie leans away from what many might expect from a Christian film in some regards (no obvious preaching, for example).  Lionsgate, the distributor for the Saw series, distributed the movie, which is ironic because House has several very Saw-like elements, albeit executed in a far less developed and structured way.  No, House isn't a tamer and lesser offering just because it's Christian; it could have been both Christian and just as brutal and philosophically rich as something like the entries in the Saw series.  The contrasts will come up again during this review.


Production Values

Though a small-budget movie, the atmosphere and sets are effective for the story structure.  The execution isn't amazing, but it's not totally devoid of effectiveness.  The acting and script are inconsistent in their quality across characters and scenes: some of the actors and actresses exhibit far more skill than others.  The titular house itself works well aesthetically, although it could have been given more "personality" to make it unique by comparison to haunted houses from other stories.

Stephanie is acted rather well by Heidi Dippold, and Bill Moseley has some effective moments as Stewart.  Most of the other performances, while not utter trash, are not particularly notable, even that of the villain.  Michael Madsen plays the Tin Man, and, not in the movie as much as he is in the book, he isn't ever developed or explained very much.  Madsen acts out a reserved but malevolent character fairly well.  Tin Man is certainly no Jigsaw, though.  Don't expect him to have a sophisticated backstory, a deeply philosophical message, or a screen presence like that of Tobin Bell.  House is certainly not as deep or carefully crafted as Saw, which it shares some atmosphere with (and the distributing company with).  In the book Tin Man was a malevolent combination of elements from Jigsaw and Jason Vorhees, but in the movie Madsen presents him as a mostly reserved villain who exaggerates his own alignment with evil ("I'm pure . . . evil.  One hundred percent" can seem quite a silly statement compared to those of other cinema serial killers).  Yes, he sometimes comes across as childish in his characterization.


Story

(SPOILERS)

In the opening scene a woman hides in a house, the front door of which is barricaded.  A man with a gun finds her and shoots her, but only after she exposits that she is his wife.  Later, another husband and wife are on a car ride to visit a marriage counselor in Alabama, briefly pursued by a cop that, once they eventually stop, suggests a shortcut to their destination.  Their car runs over sharp metal pieces nearby another car with a flat tire, next to which is a set of tire spikes.  The couple leaves, walked around, and finds a building called the Wayside Inn, which they do not remember passing.

Inside, they meet Randy and Leslie, whose car they saw next to their own.  And before long all four meet Betty, Stewart, and Pete, the residents who own the establishment.  It isn't long before abnormal phenomena begin to occur, such as Jack and Stephanie separately seeing apparitions of their dead daughter Melissa (who died in an accident while ice skating).  When Stephanie eventually tries to walk out of the house, a man with a gun stands outside.  The man soon climbs onto the roof and drops a tin can down the chimney after trying to enter the front door without any success.

The can has writing on it and communicates three "rules."  The first is "God came into my house, and I killed him", the second, "I will kill anyone who comes into my house, like I killed God", and the third, "Give me one dead body before sunrise and I'll let rule number two slide."  The four visitors become separated and must face their own past trials--the death of a daughter, rape by an uncle, and the vengeful killing of an abusive father.  Events in the house pressure them to kill each other in order to satisfy the demand of Tin Man.  While in the basement, Jack finds a girl named Susan, and eventually the police officer that gave directions to Jack and Stephanie earlier comes and tells the four victims that they can leave through the garage, the way he came in.

They attempt to flee only to find a man waiting outside who begins shooting at the officer; the man, though, is chained, and quickly shot by the cop.  The officer orders them back inside and reveals himself as Tin Man.  He repeats his three rules and seats the four visitors at a table where they are restrained in chairs, a knife inserted into the table in front of each.  Susan enters and calls Tin Man a liar, enraging Tin Man enough for him to demand that the bound guests kill her.  Leslie and Randy break free and kill each other, while Tin Man shoots Susan, whose corpse soon releases a bright light that destroys Tin Man.  Then Jack and Stephanie leave the house, see their bodies outside their vehicle surrounded by emergency personnel, and wake up on the ground.  Susan emerges from behind a tree and smiles, but as the ambulance transports him and his wife away, Jack sees Tin Man outside the Wayside Inn, with Betty, Stewart, and Pete all staring out from upstairs.


Intellectual Content

The book the movie is based upon proclaims, albeit sometimes rather cheaply and vaguely at the some times, that sin deserves death.  In the film, this is even more undeveloped as a theme.  Other than some writing on a wall that is briefly visible and some sporadic talk about moral guilt, almost no attention is given to this concept.  There are still some allegorical elements that are probably easier to recognize if one has read the book.  For instance, a black smoke that comes out of Betty and Stewart also comes out of the real Jack during the doppelgänger scene, conveying that evil is inside of him too, since the smoke in some way represents the presence of evil.  When Tin Man accuses the four visitors of belonging in the house just as much as Betty, Stewart, and Pete, he is affirming this point.  However, there is nothing profound in the way these messages are handled in the film.  Even the death of Susan, who is meant to act as a Christ figure, isn't explained outright in the movie (it is in the book), and Susan is scarcely developed as a character, and thus the core theme remains vague.

At one point Leslie suggests to Jack that Betty or Stewart found their case files from past therapy because that would provide a rational explanation for how they know them.  "There's nothing rational about this place, Leslie," Jack tells her.  Jack makes a self-refuting claim here.  The laws of logic are universal and inviolable.  Nothing in the house violated or could violate logic, although the events in the house contradicted their expectations based upon their previous experiences in the external world, and thus they thought that spiritual forces were irrational, which means contrary to reason.  Is it impossible for me to go into a house and find supernatural inhabitants and a wall that leaks smoke that fashions a lookalike of me?  Is such a series of events irrational?  Not at all!  The house is still a house, the smoke is still the smoke, and the demons are demons.  Nothing about this scenario is irrational, though it might be very foreign to me.  When people throw out words like "irrational" or "impossible" haphazardly like Jack does, they trivialize the concepts the words are supposed to convey.  They speak in error.  No, I don't let things like this slide.


Conclusion

House ultimately doesn't have as much quality, heart, or innovation as secular horror films that use Christian imagery or characters do, like Jame Wan's The Conjuring 2, but it still stands far above many Christian-made films I've seen.  Hopefully, Christian filmmakers will begin to more regularly take the Scott Derrickson approach, boldly tackling the horror genre (and even non-horror movies like Doctor Strange).  But although it is still overshadowed by its secular counterparts, House rises above the unsalvageable horrendous acting of many Christians movies I've watched.  I referred to development and lack thereof a lot in this review.  Had the characters and setting been developed more, House could have risen above mediocrity.


Content:
1. Violence:  Some brawls and gun kills.