Main cast: Carlyn Burchell (Katherine), Gustav Gerdener (James), Zino Ventura (Mark), Sharni Vinson (Hazel), and Steven John Ward (Ade)
Director: Alastair Orr
Hazel, James, Mark, and Ade are four people who, to put it euphemistically, are not exemplary citizens. They decide that kidnapping Katherine, the daughter of a wealthy jewelry dealer, and demanding some diamonds for her return would solve all their problems with both the law and with debtors. Unfortunately, they soon realize that Katherine is not who, or what, she seems to be. In a stroke of unlucky coincidence, they show up to kidnap Katherine – who doesn’t put up much of a fight – shortly after a failed exorcism that culminated with Katherine slaughtering her parents as well as the two priests performing the exorcism. You see, Katherine is possessed by a demon, and now, she has new four toys to play with…
While the premise seems intriguing, From a House on Willow Street is a complete dud because it is hopeless in how much it resembles a lazy, by-the-numbers horror movie trying very hard to cash in on the current horror movie bandwagon. Characterization is nondescript, and everyone does really stupid things just to prolong the misery. The worst thing, though, is the reliance on very obvious jump scares. The movie does not even bother to be subtle. Light goes out exactly on cue, and the camera pans slowly to a girl with her back facing the protagonist, and the music slowly builds to an annoying fever pitch… and then… UTTERLY BORING AND PREDICTABLE JUMP SCARE, BOO! Repeat and rinse.
There is no build-up, no tension, no suspense, nothing. Just a lazy and tedious montage poorly lit scenes, jump scares, and scenes that seem vaguely taken out from previous more entertaining horror movies, all leading to an eye-roll of a deus ex machina ending and the villain suddenly going from indestructible to whack-me-bad-with-a-stick-ooh-I’m-losing-now without much of a decent explanation.
This whole movie is like a first-timer’s inept attempt to practice the use of jump scares and various tired, played out tricks like some kind of experiment in which poor me is the guinea pig that actually paid movie to see this boring waste of time. I feel like channeling some inner demon myself now.
