The House at the End of the Street

 If you know me at all, you know that I will watch just about any horror movie there is. When I saw that Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Shue were in The House at the End of the Street, well, I figured, sure. Why not? JudoMaster is out of town so let's go see a scary movie! I don't care that it's not getting great ratings. Let's see it anyway!

In The House at the End of the Street, Sarah (Elizabeth Shue) & Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) are just moving in to a new neighborhood and it's pretty obvious that there is some estrangement between the two. The new house is right on the edge of a national forest and right next to a spooky house where no one is supposed to be living,because of course, something really bad happened there. Like some family was killed sort of bad. So when Momma Shue sees a light on in the upstairs late, late one night, she's gotta wonder, who's in the house? Katniss, I mean Elissa, is curious and stumbles upon the son of the family who lived there, who of course the whole community hates because the tragedy has lowered their property values (thank you shallow middle class folks for being so considerate and caring and two dimensional). As you would expect, Elissa just can't believe that this good looking older yet weird guy could be bad in any way, so against Momma Shue's orders, she starts sneaking around to see him. Then the real fun begins. Then you get to find out what really happened in the house all those years ago when the daughter murdered her parents and the son came home. It's not as straight forward as you might think. The ending - twisty. I'd compare it to another movie that shocked the pants off me, but then I'd spoil it for ya, and who wants that?

Let's be honest here. THatEotS is really more of a thriller than a horror movie. It's a good thriller, better than say, an awful Ashley Judd movie I paid to see in the theater called Twisted. It's not Black Swan worthy, but it does have a tense ending that you don't see coming until they start to play it out. I figured it out after one scene towards the end, but  until then I was clueless. Jennifer Lawrence is good with what she has to work with, as I would expect. (Seriously, I was so happy when I saw Hunger Games to see that they cast someone who could do more than stare at the camera with one expression.) And she sings! What a lovely voice she has. And who doesn't love seeing Elizabeth Shue? I wish we saw a bit more of her but she & Ms. Lawrence played off each other well. Max Theroit as the boy next door was a decent vulnerable, hated by the world pariah but I didn't think he had much chemistry with JL. Could be because I had a hard time forgetting My Soul to Take and his dorky character Bug.

Overall, I wasn't disappointed in seeing it, but I wasn't blown away either. I'd probably watch it again when it comes out on cable but I wouldn't buy it. Not sure it would be as good if you already know the ending.

Rating: 3.5 Purrrss. Momma Shue! Katniss sings! Surprise ending and good tense final scenes, but not as tightly put together as I'd like.