E's Reviews: Our House

OUR HOUSE was directed by Anthony Scott Burns and stars Thomas Mann, Percy Hynes White, and Kate Moyer. The story centers around Ethan (Thomas Mann), Matt (Percy Hynes White), and Becca (Kate Moyer), as siblings who are struggling to get by after a tragedy befalls their family. Ethan, a young electronics whiz, accidentally invents a device that amplifies the paranormal activity within his family's house, possibly bringing back the spirits of loved ones, and unleashing things far worse. I won’t go into specifics of the device itself, but it is pretty cool, especially if you’re a paranormal investigation junkie like I am.

The story itself is a very simple one. I found the screenplay okay for the most part. The characters were well fleshed out and Thomas Mann gives a great performance. The marketing for this movie kept pushing Nicola Peltz, which didn’t really make sense since you see more of Ethan, Matt and Becca, than you do Ethan’s girlfriend Hannah (Nicola Peltz). I think they tried this because some people would recognize the name and would go see the movie. I was more intrigued by the story, the fascinating mesh of family drama, science fiction, and light horror. The film has some very effective scenes that are pretty creepy. The way the film looks is also pretty good. They had some very good angles that made the home look that much more scary, so I appreciated that as a horror fan. But don’t get me wrong...this is far from a simple haunted house movie filled with jump scares.

The scares only show up near the third act, for the most part. The rest of the movie, we get to follow around Ethan as he struggles to take care of his family. This is definitely a drama, and that’s where it’ll lose some of the targeted audience. That being said, the tragic story, the decent scares and spooks, the intriguing sci-fi element, and the good performances will make this a movie you’ll want to see. I actually watched it twice just yesterday on VOD. I didn’t get a chance to make it to the theaters because it had an extremely limited release, but was readily available on Vudu Movies & TV on the same day, so I rented it.

Now, I saw it twice for this review, not because it’s a perfect movie, it was an okay movie. I did it because I wanted to make sure that my disappointment with the marketing was legitimate...and it was. Every ad or social media post I saw for it, like I said before, pushed Nicola Peltz. This was a mistake, since she was clearly the weakest character in the story. Thomas Mann was really the hero of this story, and he clearly stood out amongst the rest. He was great. This film is PG-13, so don’t expect cursing or gore or even much violence, it’s very tame.

In the end, I enjoyed it. I liked the acting, I liked the story, I liked the scares. It was a very simple family drama with some light scares and an interesting sci-fi subplot. I recommend checking it out on VOD if you can’t catch it in theaters on limited release. One more thing I noticed was that, independent filmmakers and distributors (like IFC Midnight, A24, etc) are really stepping up their game lately, and I really do appreciate that. I’m becoming a huge fan of independent film, and this is a great time for movie lovers.

Final Score: 7/10