From A House On Willow Street
禁室杀戮
Rating
NC16 Horror and Some Coarse Language
Language
English with no subtitles
Cast
Sharni Vinson, Carlyn Burchell, Zino Ventura, Steven John Ward
Synopsis
From A House On Willow Street is a frightening new horror film. Sharni Vinson (Step Up 3d, You’re Next) stars as Hazel, a roguish kidnapper, who, along with 3 accomplices, abducts a young heiress. When they have her locked up in their inescapable lair, they discover she is possessed by a terrifying demon, which plunges them into a nightmarish experience of supernatural horror.
Reviews
By Freddy 29 Mar 2017
‘From A House On Willow Street’ is a mediocre horror that lacks novelty to move beyond its decent premise.
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On the surface, ‘From A House On Willow Street’ appears to have a rather interesting premise. A group of kidnappers snatched Katherine (Carlyn Burchell) for ransom, only to discover that she has been possessed and her entire family has been killed. Turning the captors into the victim reminds me of the excellent thriller ‘Don’t Breathe’ from last year.
The film wastes no time to get to the premise. The group, led by Hazel (Sharni Vinson) manages to get Katherine to their hideout within the first 15-20 minutes of the film. They also quickly figured out that something is wrong with Katherine. It took some time to find out the whole truth, though.
Even with its brisk pace and tight 90-minute duration, the film clearly struggles to sustain the audience’s interest. There is not much beyond what we already know from the trailers and synopsis. So it keeps finding reasons to split up the characters and have them be haunted by the ghost, who would appear by someone they know. It was fine the first few times and is a relatively unique spin on the genre, but it soon becomes repetitive. The lack of distinct voice or appearance of the demon hurts
It does not help that we know very little about the characters’ motivations, which makes them difficult to root for. They have different personalities and relationships with each other, but their connections feel forced. I do not feel that they genuinely care about each other’s survival. The acting seems decent but honestly, the actors have little to work with.
Some of the scares are decent and the film is good in building up suspense. However, it clearly relies too heavily on jump scares and loud noises, which ultimately feel cheap. The tentacle-mouth monster is creepy at first, but that reaction wears out quickly. The film simply does not evoke enough fear to be an effective horror.
The horror genre is clearly not the pinnacle of plot mastery but this film has jarring plot holes. At the beginning, the characters keep emphasizing that the kidnapping needs to be surgical and they need six weeks to plan it. The six-week duration was emphasised several times, only to lead to one of the most typical kidnapping that should not take 4 kidnappers more than a day to plan. Also, the demon possessing Katherine is so powerful, the film could be over in 10 minutes. Seriously, the demon can stop speeding bullets mid-air. Katherine does not even need to leave the house. Also, there is a plot point about Hazel having lost her family in that house as her motivation to kidnap Katherine, but it does not make any sense.
The cinematography is satisfactory. It makes good use of lighting and colours to contribute to the suspense of the scenes. It occasionally explores interesting camera angles, too, which may make the audience feel uncomfortable in a good way. The score is effective, not too distracting, and knows when to be quiet.
Overall, ‘From A House On Willow Street’ is a mediocre horror that lacks novelty to move beyond its decent premise. Horror fans might not find it very disappointing, but they are even less likely to be impressed. At best, it feels typical and thus is difficult to recommend.
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