The Open House (A Movie Review)

In this day and age, movies don't necessarily have to find their way to theaters to be seen. With online services such as Amazon, and Hulu, and the great Netflix, new movies are being released with less television advertised fanfare, and more online advertising. It seems like Netflix always has something new on the horizon, to keep their customers happy with their service. Some of the movies are hits, and some of them are misses. "The Open House" is actually both of those things.

Released on January 19th, the movie stars "Dylan Minnette" (Netflix's "13 Reasons Why"), as a teenage boy who saw his father die right in front of his eyes. To make their lives work after the devastating loss of the primary bread winner, the mother and son move to her sister's mansion in the mountains, while she tries to sell the place. After that, there's a lot of that formulaic thriller movie writing that we've all come to accept as standard.

Once a week, the realtor (a really unpleasant woman) holds an open house, for people with interest in buying the home to walk through, and see the place. Unfortunately at some point, someone comes in and doesn't leave. Or does leave? I'm really not clear on that part. Maybe they just got a key? Maybe they are hiding below the floorboards? Maybe they teleport to a hidden dimension, and frolic with unicorns during the day, only to pop back in at night? They never really say. Either way, the mother and son start to notice things going wrong around the house: noises, a malfunctioning water heater, and missing belongings. I know, this is old hat, but at least they tried... I think.

The acting was okay here, they had a decent cast, but some of the characters just sort of fell flat. Of course. There were characters that were seen, and seemed to be important, that just sort of never turned up again. Even one lady that seemed to have a story building around her, that was just never explained. There were a couple of bit parts that just seemed pointless here. But they were all competent actors. You can't blame a flimsy script on the actors.

Dear Writers...

To be honest, I was entertained by this movie. It was a good movie, and I enjoyed it. Right up until the end. I won't spoil much, but I will say this: a lot of movies leave things open for interpretation at the end. They want to make their viewer think. This movie should not have been one of those movies. It did not leave itself open for a sequel, it just ended. Just like that. No explanation. Just ended. For that, I felt as if I wasted my time watching this movie. It was a worse ending than a bad Dean Koontz ending. Unfortunately, I just can't see myself watching this movie again.

-Rob