Open House

Running time: 88 minutes

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Release date: January 31^st 2011

Star rating: 1/5

Director/writer: Andrew Paquin

Cast: Rachel Blanchard, Tricia Helfer, Brain Geraghty, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer

On the verge of a nasty divorce, Alice (Rachel Blanchard) looks to sell the luxury home she shared with her husband, and start life a fresh. Of course, it’s not that simple, and things begin to go horribly wrong when David (Brian Geraghty) sneaks in during an open house and takes Alice hostage; meanwhile, Lila (Tricia Helfer) moves in and begins to act out her psycho-sexual fantasies.

The promotion for this film claimed starring roles for True Blood couple Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, but this is reduced to nothing more than a brief cameo as their combined screen time is probably less than ten minutes before they are quickly killed off. And this is perhaps the most surprising aspect of a film that disappoints at every opportunity. Despite a running time of less than 90 minutes, the plot idles on offering little in terms of tension and suspense, leaving the audience with nothing to grab hold of. This is director/ writer Andrew Paquin’s first film, and it shows by the amateurish way the film has been put together as he loses control of the quickly fading plot.

The characters are one dimensional and instantly forgettable. Tricia Helfer (Lila) may be able to play an intimidating seductress, but she is only able to use this talent twice in the film, the rest of the time she is inexplicably absent making it impossible to impose any sense of threat. This shifts the focus onto Brain Geraghty (David) playing a shy, socially awkward character whose sense of weakness in front of Lila is supposed to create shock by his random bursts of rage, but actually becomes predictable and ultimately boring.

The main failing of this film is that it simply doesn’t build up to any sense of climax. The plot is frustratingly repetitive, reverting to predictably killing off a cast member every time the plot desperately needs a boost. At no point is there a sense that the killers may be caught or that Alice will escape her captors. Instead the plot is simply allowed to slowly fade away with barley a whimper as it reaches its unsurprising conclusion.

Verdict: Open House struggles due to a half-cooked script that fails to deliver the basic tension and suspense required of the horror genre, while the characterisation is less that of threatening psychopaths, and more frustrating psycho-sexual clichés. All of which leads to a lacklustre ending that is ultimately forgettable.