House at the End of the Street

Plot synopsis:
The story opens with a scene from the point-of-view of a psychotic killer, who looks like a teenage long-haired girl wearing a night-dress, killing first their mother and then their father with a hammer in the middle of a stormy night. The events are blurred and warped as if the killer is deranged or drugged.Four years later. A newly divorced woman, Sarah Cassidy (Elisabeth Shue), and her teenage daughter Elissa Cassidy (Jennifer Lawrence) find the house of their dreams in a small upscale town. But when startling events begin to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret. As told by the neighbors: four years earlier a teen girl named Carrie-Ann Jacobson killed her parents in the house next door and then fled into the woods. The townies believe that Carrie-Ann drowned in the river yet her body has never been found, leaving others to believe that she lives in the woods. Ryan Jacobson (Max Thieriot), is the sole survivor who at the time was looking after his ailing aunt far away. Ryan now lives alone in the house; the neighborhood hates the house as it drives down their property values. Bill Weaver (Gil Bellows), a local police officer, appears to be Ryan's only supporter.Against the wishes of Sarah, Elissa and Ryan begin a relationship. He tells her that he accidentally injured Carrie-Ann while they were swinging one day, he was supposed to be watching her while their parents were inside - his mother was getting high while his father watched TV. Carrie-Ann fell off the swings as she wanted to go higher, and Ryan says that she got brain damage which makes her extremely aggressive. Ryan returned to the house just after the murders with his aunt, who died a year ago before Elissa and Sarah moved in. It is revealed to the viewer that Ryan has secretly been taking care of a woman who appears to be "Carrie-Ann" in a hidden room. No locals know of the existence of "Carrie-Ann". Carrie-Ann escapes the room on two occasions and appears to attempt to attack Elissa. During the second escape attempt, Ryan accidentally kills Carrie-Ann while trying to hide her from a teenage couple and keep her quiet. In his grief, he visits a diner where a student waitress attempts to comfort him, giving him a slice of cake on the house.While visiting Elissa's battle of the bands, several high school students vandalize Ryan's car and attack him. In defense, Ryan breaks Tyler's (Nolan Gerard Funk) ankle and runs home. The remaining students decide to burn his house down. Elissa stops the fire. Elissa then looks in the garbage and finds a packet of tampons. She also finds a blue contact lens and a purse with a student I.D. inside of it on the counter. She hides these facts from Ryan. Whilst inside, Elissa finds Ryan's secret room. She is attacked by Carrie-Ann as Ryan arrives home. At this moment, it is revealed that the current Carrie-Ann is actually the waitress from the diner who has been held captive and made to look like Carrie-Ann.In order to keep Carrie-Ann's presence a secret, Ryan knocks Elissa out and ties her to a chair. He reveals that Carrie-Ann actually died during the swing accident but that he still needed Carrie-Ann in his life. He knocks out the student and says he will make Elissa his new Carrie-Ann.It becomes apparent that the first "Carrie-Ann" rather was another victim attempting to escape from Ryan. When Weaver arrives, Ryan says Elissa isn't there, but Weaver decides to call her house phone (which has been call-forwarded to her cellphone) and then hears her cell phone ring inside the Jacobson house. In a scuffle with Ryan, Weaver tells Ryan that he has always defended him, but Ryan gets angry and stabs Weaver to death. Elissa escapes but is chloroformed by Ryan and thrown into the trunk of his car. She awakens and escapes. Sarah arrives at the house and hears Elissa's screams, but is stabbed by Ryan. During a struggle, Ryan is shot several times by Elissa using Weaver's gun and finally knocked out by Sarah.Elissa and Sarah move out, and Ryan is shown in a mental hospital. To explain how he became disturbed and why he killed his parents, a flashback reveals that after the death of Carrie-Ann, Ryan's parents forced him to act as Carrie-Ann and abused him if he refused.

Tags: psychological, murder, flashback

Review:
This movie was a pleasant surprise to me because I thought it was going to be more of a "horror" movie...I wouldn't call it that, I'd call it a terrific suspense thriller with good twists here and there.
The story is dull and predictable and the acting isn't rocksolid!Jennifer Lawrence played her role well though, she "blows" everyone away in this movie BUT, on the other hand, and I don't want to sound too negative, this flick wasn't a very hard nut for her to crack!The story ;Elissa (Lawrence) moves into a new home together with her mom Sarah(Elisabeth Shue) and finds out that the son of a murdered couple, who lived next door, still lives in the house where his parents were killed.
This film makes an attempt on having such a twist, but personally, for me, it didn't work.Let's start off with the good things: the acting was very good, especially by Max Thieriot as Ryan.
Perhaps the only saving grace comes from a somewhat "star" lister in Jennifer Lawrence, having made her name in X-Men: First Class, and spearheading The Hunger Games most recently, but even then the filmmakers failed to make it count where it mattered, preferring to rely on her many cleavage baring, tight tank tops to try and make a point, not.Elizabeth Shue and Jennifer Lawrence star as mother-daughter Sarah and Elissa, who find themselves a nice abode in the middle of the woods of a small town, where the townsfolk aren't all that keen that their new neighbours had moved in next to a house that bore witness to two killings, which the prologue introduces us to.
Soon, Elissa finds herself drawn to the sole survivor of that massacre in Ryan (Max Thieriot) despite her mother's objections, and we're left wondering if the aloof Ryan is really a real Boo Radley type who is much maligned by everyone else, or is actually hiding something a lot more sinister especially when it had to do with his supposedly missing sister Carrie Anne (Eva Link), accused of murdering their parents in cold blood.Movie goers will probably be able to stay multiple steps ahead of this insipid storyline, if only they can stay awake for the first hour where the movie decided to go all over the place in showing how Sarah and Elissa try to fit in to their new environment, in school and at the hospital, making friends with the police and teenage peers for a rock concert that doesn't materialize because a modestly budgeted film will not allow for one.
I thought we were better than this.Jennifer Lawrence, who woefully deserves better than this film, withheld by its own cardboard limitations, plays Ellissa, a teenager who has just moved into a rural home with her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) on a block that holds many secrets.
Whether it's that, or the fact that the marketing campaign was reduced to "blink and you miss it" type ads, House at the End of the Street isn't the least bit satisfying or memorable.Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot, Elisabeth Shue, Gil Bellows, and Eva Link.
However, her new movie, HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET, is a dreadful psychological thriller that tries too hard to venture into PSYCHO-like territory but comes up terribly short.
From there, it never regains its footing and goes downhill all the way.Flash forward to four years, we are now introduced to a spunky high-school student Elissa (Lawrence) and her recently-divorce mom Sarah Cassidy (Elisabeth Shue), where both of them move into a house at the small Pennsylvania town of Woodshire, in hope to start fresh.
As their relationship blossoms into two lovebirds, little is known to Elissa that Ryan is actually keeping his thought-dead psychotic sister locked under the basement of his home.Despite branded as a thriller and carries such title like HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET, it's extremely baffling that the movie is almost suspense-free throughout its wimpy 101-minute running time.
Even by the time the movie starts to act like a thriller for the final half an hour's mark, it's all too late and too little.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth Shue delivers some worthwhile performance as the overprotective mom, Sarah.HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET is mostly a boring movie.
The fact the majority of poor Suspenseful horrors have torched us over the years, I think I am finally ready let go of a genre that will always be remembered for its recognition through-out the 70's and 80's.In terms of the review ahead, let's start off by referencing the quotes in the image above; The following movie is NOT deeply scary with a twist that is far from awesome but is in fact decent, a word equivalent to acceptable where I come from.What seems an ideal family dream home, Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) is the first to find conspicuous events surrounding the landscape of their new home and the rural town within.
Her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) is desperate to remain optimistic and sees the move a fresh start from a troubled past we know little about.Elissa is more than a little helpful after learning a murder had occurred in their new home, leading to flirty chats between herself and ideal genre heartthrob Ryan (Max Thieriot), the son and last remaining member of the murdered family.
The main character, played excellently by Jennifer Lawrence, is likable, in the sense that she feels real in the way she interacts with her mother and moving to a new home and school, and doesn't teeter too far towards a socially inept emo kid, but not a total goody goody either and I am beginning to think Jennifer Lawrence is very capable of choosing good roles that she knows she will be able to tackle.
(Loved her in The Hunger Games and X-Men: First Class) The mother, played by Elisabeth Shue, was protective, caring, but not overbearing and has made plenty mistakes in her past in her daughters eyes and their connection is almost impeccable.When Max Thieriot's character is introduced, who gave a passable performance as well, it starts to get more entertaining.
The only thing this has going for it is Jennifer Lawrence who is clearly too good for the lame material she's given to work with, and the twist isn't exactly terrible in a kind of camp fire style way, but it clearly lacks enough substance for it to be made into a full length movie.
I'm sure plenty of 15+ people will enjoy it too, but I'm going to stick my neck out and guess that its primary fanbase will be around the 15 years of age mark.I've seen a lot of these times of horror/thrillers.
Jennifer Lawrence as Elissa , Elisabeth Shue as Elissa's mom Sarah and Max Thieriot as Ryan are the most important characters in the movie.
I did so for 'House at the End of the Street' (2012), starring the phenomenal work of Jennifer Lawrence and Max Thieriot; and was extremely disappointed to find that it had only been awarded a measly 5.6/10.
With the latest The House At The End Of The Street they showcase Jennifer Lawrence in the lead to attempt to tell a creepy tale that the trailers left enough mystery to not really know where it was going, but does it work?
This film plays more of a slow thriller with very little meat than a full on creepy horror film they wanted you to believe and it ended up just not working overall.If you go into this film knowing that it offers little more than a Lifetime movie vibe with a bit of a thriller twist then you will most likely enjoy it.
This isn't a horrible movie; it just doesn't play as advertised like a lot of films and ends up not delivering what it could have..
Plus I have become a fan of sorts of Jennifer Lawrence, the camera really loves her face, she is a natural to become a real "movie star." While I certainly would not put this movie in my list of top movies, it is rather well made and the story held my attention.The rest of my comments contain SPOILERS so don't read further if you haven't seen the movie.The first 4 1/2 minutes take us right into the center of the mystery, we see a daughter of maybe 13 or 14 kill her mother in the home then go into the bedroom and kill her father, then she runs away through the woods.
It is now 4 years later, Jennifer Lawrence is teenager Elissa, she and her mother, Elisabeth Shue as Sarah , are moving from Chicago to this area and are renting the house just a short distance away, through a small stand of trees.
This teenager named Alyssa played by Jenifer Lawrence moves into this new home with her mother played by Elisabeth Shue, she develops a relationship with this guy played by Max theriot, who still lives in the same house his sister massacred his parents years ago.
It's a stone's throw away from others film of its type, and is your classic high school horror in every way: misfit girl in a new town, cute boy with a dark secret, protective mother, and a house with a bad history and a possible killer on the loose; you get the picture.
The performances in the film are solid; Lawrence, Hollywood's next biggest thing, proves her chops, Max Thieriot plays up the dollface with a dark secret, and Elisabeth Shue handles her material well as usual.And, in all honesty, I have to admit that, as a veteran viewer, I did NOT see the surprise ending coming, although after the film ended I was sweetly reminded of genre classics like "Sleepaway Camp" and the classic "Psycho", which were very clearly guidebooks for the writers.
Maybe lacked a bit of suspense or terror, but did not leave the story less interesting.At the beginning of the film, the actor Max Thieriot makes believe that Ryan was a boy hardened by the death of his parents, but seemed to be a boy seemingly harmless.The end really is fantastic, with great revelations of Ryan, who do understand a little of his life storyI do not regret having watched, and would recommend to anyone who likes the genre of horror or suspense!.
As far as thriller/horror films go, House at the End of the Street wasn't all that bad.
The clever twist lost its appeal for me when director, Mark Tonderai, decided to continue stretching out the scene making each second more and more unbelievable and pointless.The screenplay co-written by David Loucka and Jonathan Mostow centers on a single mother, Sarah (Elisabeth Shue), and her teenage daughter, Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) who arrive from Chicago to a small town to start a new life.
House at the End of the Street is full of clichés and borrows ideas from other much better horror films.
The film might appeal to some teens and fans of Jennifer Lawrence, but this formulaic film has bad editing and relies on so many horror clichés like the "shocking" sound effects that don't necessarily work very well.
95% of the movies I see are of that genre and so I know a good horror film when I see one.
"The House at the end of the street" is a film that I only wanted to see purely because of the talent that is Jennifer Lawrence.
'HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET': Three Stars (Out of Five)Probably the hottest mom and daughter team to ever grace a horror film with their presence (or possibly any film for that matter); Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Shue star as a teen and her mother, who move in to a new house next door to a home where a young girl reportedly murdered her parents years earlier.
Once again we have a common theme that has been done to death, but the producers of this film were hoping that by spending big bucks on Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games) and Max Thieriot (Bates Motel) that they could get people to watch their film and it worked, but I suspect most people were sadly disappointing like I was.
'House at the End of the Street' is okay, there's nothing very unique about the plot but the performances and the few plot twists carry it.The performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Max Theriot are really well done.
The plot is pretty basic; it's your standard horror/thriller film with a big twist at the end - to be fair I did not see this twist coming until a few minutes before it actually happened which was good.
Without investigating too much, I'm going to propose a hypothesis in order to explain the release on cinemas of the film House at the End of the Street: it was shot in 2010, but it was shelved for a while because, probably, nobody had any interest in distributing it; however, when actress Jennifer Lawrence became a Hollywood star thanks to the success of The Hunger Games, the producers decided to risk themselves in order to invest on releasing it on cinemas, with the hope that the fans of The Hunger Games would fill the theaters.
There's a glossy, safe Hollywood feel to the whole thing which sanitises it; it's as if you can watch and be reassured (despite the scares) that it's never going to be too nasty and that there will be a happy ending once it's all done and dusted.The would-be mystery plot sees Jennifer Lawrence and her mother Elisabeth Shue moving into a rural property where they discover some brutal murders were committed at a neighbouring house.
I'm disappointed that this was written by one-time director Jonathan Mostow, who directed some nice movies before his talent seemed to fall apart.The much talked-about Lawrence isn't really a draw in this film, as her acting is average at best.
But if you're looking for a well written movie, with good acting, a lot of suspense, if you're looking for a great thriller, with some scary moments, and, of course, if you love Jennifer Lawrence (lol), than go for it, you'll love it ;).
Jennifer Lawrence stars as the requisite new girl in town living with her Mom for the first time, Elizabeth Shue looking pretty good.
There were a couple parts of the movie that were interesting, such as the storyline with the sister, Carrie Anne, but the movie tries too hard to become something that it is so unbelievably far from becoming; and that is a good horror movie!The storyline in "House at the End of the Street" is so predictable that even a blind person could see it coming.
However, for us more mature of mind, and us that have grown up with proper horror and thriller movies, then "House at the End of the Street" is a very tame and dull experience..
I was pleasantly surprised, then, when it hooked me right from the start and carried my interest all the way through!For a basic plot summary, "House At The End Of The Street" sees Elissa (Lawrence) and her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) move from Chicago to a more rural locale.
Lawrence shines again (when has she ever not?!), Thieriot nearly steals the show on occasion with his nuanced performance, and for older film buffs, it is fun to see Shue back on the big screen.Overall, I think that most viewers will be surprised by "House At The End Of The Street" for its ability to differentiate itself from the more mundane suspense/thriller fare that has cropped up recently..
The house at the end of the street is not a horror movie .
A mother (Elisabeth Shue) and daughter (Jennifer Lawrence) move to a new town and find themselves living next door to a house where a young girl murdered her parents.
These things are what have led to it being savaged by critics, but backed by a trio of strong performance 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.
I think the title, while accurate has the unfortunate effect of reminding us of other flicks like "Last House on the Left" which also wasn't a bad movie but just a different type.This film really was a suspense thriller as opposed to horror.
The whole story makes you think you are watching a horror film, which you sort-of are, but not.It follows a girl who moves into a new house in the middle of Nowhere, USA.
After playing Ree in Winter's Bone, Mystique in X-Men, and Katniss in The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence is always going to be the epitome of tough girl for me.There's a good twist in the movie that I didn't see coming, but the ending turns into one of those long, drawn-out climaxes that I've seen repeated quite a few times.
House at the End of the Street (2012) ** (out of 4) Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mother (Elisabeth Shue) move to a small town where they house they bought turns out to be next to one where a young woman murdered her parents.
HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET continues a long line of rather bad horror films to be released in 2012 and it's really a shame because there are some good performances here and it's too bad they were wasted.
**Alert: Spoilers Included**I watched an advanced press screening for this film, and I have to say it was not the dead-girl-haunts-house horror story I was expecting, which turned out to be a very good thing.
Thieriot and Lawrence have great chemistry making their character arc together even better.I could list for you two dozen movies right now that House At The End Of The Street rips off blatantly and un-apologeticaly.