The Open House

The mother and son are not entirely typical, pleasantly uncomplicated characters within the haunted-house subgenre, and the cold mountain setting is a welcomingly refreshes a well-worn theme. However, almost the whole film stands on suspenseful scenes that exist only for their own sake, revealing nothing and pushing the story nowhere. That’s because the sloppy screenplay provides almost no story, which is confirmed by the perhaps surprisingly concluded but completely unexplained climax. (06/08/2020)

What attracted me to this film were the conflicting ratings. For some viewers it’s rubbish, but you can find others who are fairly satisfied. Spoilers: Well, I’m also half and half. I kind of like the inconsistency. I understand that preserving the point of view of the main characters – the victims – is the intention of the authors, and won’t condemn it, on the contrary, I think it’s pretty well done. Those poor bastards didn’t know who attacked them and why, and neither will the viewer. On the other hand, I feel this could have been done more interestingly and convincingly, especially without some of the foreplay, which ends up going nowhere. And in particular, if I saw that things in my house (the phone, a bowl of food) were moving without my intervention, I would address it right away. (02/18/2018)