HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET Blu-ray Review

House at the End of the Street has arrived on Blu-ray and DVD Combo pack from 20th Century Fox. I missed the film in theaters, so this was my first viewing. I must say that I am truly glad I saw this film at home. This is one of the most generic horror movies I have seen as of late, and that is saying something. I feel as though I had seen this story before, oh wait I have seen something called The Last House on the Left. I had hoped that the fact that I am a fan of Jennifer Lawrence, that I would somewhat enjoy House at the End of the Street, but I was wrong. 

Directed by Mark Tonderai, the film stars Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue, Max Thieriot, Gil Bellows, Will Bowes, and Jonathan Higgins. The story follows Sarah (Shue) and her daughter Elissa (Lawrence) who are trying to regroup after Sarah's recent divorce. They move to a small town and find their dream home, but things take a turn for the worse when some unexplainable events start happening. The mother and daughter soon find out that they live next door to  the location of a mysterious murder.  A few years ago, the Jacobson parents were murdered by their daughter Carrie-Ann who subsequently fled to the woods and drowned in the nearby dam, or did she? The house is occupied by Ryan (Thieriot), the 18- year old sole survivor.

I can not say much nice about this film at all. The story truly lacked a plot and or any form of character development. There is nothing remotely scary about this movie. It should definitely not be classified as a horror, but more a thriller. If you are scared by this film, then you likely do not venture outdoors much. There are far scarier events that happen in the real world than in this film. Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic in most roles, but this is by far my least favorite role and character - the lack of character development did not make it any easier for me to like her character. The same goes for the rest of the cast. Max Thieriot has been in some decent movies, but he is no stranger to starring in lackluster horror movies. The sad thing is that I can actually say he has starred in a worse movie from the genre, My Soul To Take. I am happy that Elisabeth Shue is still getting work, but I hope she chooses better projects going forward.

If you are scared by loud noises, then you will be scared out of your mind by this Blu-ray. Instead of scary moments audiences are given a bunch of loud noises to attempt to set the tone for the scenes. This lends to moments of intense loudness to moments of dialogue that is very quiet, which means you will have to regularly change the volume on your home theater. The video quality is pretty standard, albeit dark, but looks decent in 1080p.

Unfortunately the Blu-ray does not come with any must-watch special features.

  • Journey Into Terror: Inside House at the End of the Street: This is your run-of the-mill behind the scenes feature with interviews and footage with the director, cast and crew. 
  • Theatrical Trailer 
  • Sneak Peak: The film includes a trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt

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