House Hunting
| House Hunting | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Eric Hurt |
| Written by | Eric Hurt |
| Starring |
Marc Singer Art LaFleur Hayley DuMond |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release dates |
|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
House Hunting, also released as The Wrong House, is a 2012 psychological horror-thriller film that was written and directed by Eric Hurt. The film was released on March 5, 2012 and starred Marc Singer and Art LaFleur. House Hunting follows two families that are trapped within a deserted farmhouse.
Plot
Charlie Hays, his daughter Emmy, and his second wife Susan follow a lead on a foreclosed house Charlie wants to buy. It's a seemingly perfect and beautiful home on 70 acres of private land. He also wants to use this as an opportunity for Emmy and Susan to get along, as neither likes one another. Meanwhile, another family – Don Thomson, his wife Leslie, and their live-in son Jason, who has suffered a broken leg in a car accident – meets a man in a red hat who gives Don an advertisement for the same house the Hayses are interested in. Finding it too good to be true, they too make the trip out to the house. Once both families arrive, they find the house abandoned. Charlie and his family go to the road to retrieve the realtor's phone number and, on the way back, nearly strike a distraught girl named Hanna running across the road. She is severely traumatized, and her tongue has been cut out. The families decide to take her to the hospital, but to their shock find themselves coming back to the house again and again. Don refuses to give up but by nightfall, his car runs out of gas. They decide to stay in the house, despite the Hanna's pleading not to enter.
Once inside, they find firewood and cans of stew that account for each one of them: seven cans for seven people. Despite the arguments that ensue between Leslie and Susan, the families decide to stay and wait for help. They remain for one month, while recordings on the house tell them that only one family will claim the house. Cabin fever and close quarters have everyone on edge until Susan spurns a cheerful Leslie for being too happy. As the tension mounts, the house inexplicably begins providing six cans instead of seven. Reminded of her daughter Lizzy who had previously died, Leslie falls into a deep depression and kills herself. After this, Susan learns that the house had been foreclosed on by Charlie himself, and Emmy begins seeing visions of a man who had killed his son. Soon after, Charlie and Emmy begin seeing visions of her mother, appearing before them with her throat slashed. Charlie confides in Emmy long ago that her mother had left them, but Susan seems to know more. Following clues by the mute girl Hanna and a puzzle, Emmy nearly makes it back to the road by walking backwards, but she is interrupted by Jason who tries to rape her. Hanna strikes him with a log, and he impales himself on a branch; Don, who has slowly begun to fall into madness, rescues him, but Jason begins to suffer shock from blood loss.
Jason, after being terrified by a vision, admits that he killed a woman in a hit and run accident not far from the house. They discover that it was the same mother who once lived in that house. Don leaves the Hayses bound and attempts to leave the property on his own. When he returns that night, he admits he found the road and starts to free them, but Susan, fearing him, attacks and kills him with an axe. Afterward, the house stops providing food for them, and Charlie begins losing his grip. At the house, Jason is attacked by a vision of the mother he had killed and is choked to death by her spirit. Charlie snaps after learning from a vision of himself that Susan told Emmy he had killed her mother and made it look like a suicide (though she told her that she'd committed suicide). After suspecting Susan of stealing their dwindling food supplies, he attacks and kills her. He goes after Emmy, wanting to kill Hanna and thus break the trap keeping them there, but Emmy and Hanna run. Charlie kills Hanna, but he is in turn killed by Emmy.
Running to the road, Emmy comes across another family. They bring her into the car and drive back to the house. Emmy panics when she sees the family chase after ghosts that had haunted her own family, but she is pulled into the car and her tongue is cut out, which starts the cycle again.
Cast
- Marc Singer as Charlie Hays
- Art LaFleur as Don Thomson
- Hayley DuMond as Susan Hays
- Janey Gioiosa as Emmy Hays
- Paul McGill as Jason Thomson
- Rebekah Kennedy as Hanna
- Victoria Vance as Leslie Thomson
- Jon Cobb as the Realtor
- Emma Rayne Lyle as Lizzy Thomson
Production
House Hunting was shot in Charlottesville, Virginia.[2]
Release
House Hunting premiered at the Virginia Film Festival on October 2, 2012.[1] Phase 4 Films released it on DVD March 5, 2013.[3]
Reception
Ain't It Cool News called it "original and well made".[4] Joel Harley of Starburst rated it 7/10 stars and wrote that the film "is far more ambitious and, indeed, interesting than one might dare hope."[5] Matthew Lee of Twitch Film wrote, "You have to forgive a lot to want to buy into The Wrong House, but it's still one of the best deals of 2012."[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "25th ANNIVERSARY VFF PROGRAM ANNOUNCED". Virginia Film Festival. 2012-10-02. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ↑ McDonald, Sam (2013-10-15). "Keith Carradine to star in movie to be filmed on Eastern Shore". Daily Press. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ↑ Foy, Scott (2012-12-11). "Go House Hunting with the Beastmaster this March". Dread Central. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ↑ Miller, Mark L. (2012-10-07). "THE WRONG HOUSE (2011)". AICN. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ↑ Harley, Joel (2013-04-23). "DVD Review: THE WRONG HOUSE". Starburst. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ↑ Lee, Matthew (2012-10-17). "Grimmfest 2012 Review: THE WRONG HOUSE Is So Very Wrong, But So, So Right". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2013-12-04.