House of Last Things (2013)

House of Last Things: Directed by Michael Bartlett. With Lindsey Haun, Blake Berris, RJ Mitte, Randy Schulman. A mind-bending thriller set in Portland, Oregon about an unspoken tragedy and its effects on a house, its temporary caretakers and the owners, a classical music critic and his wife on a recuperative trip to Italy.

“Clearly most of the people who wrote reviews are friends or family of the director. The flowery language alone is an obvious tell. A few people reviewed it very harshly as a response to the over the top praise. Iu0026#39;ll do neither.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie has several interesting ideas, some lovely visuals, uneven acting, a mildly incoherent plot and low to middling production values. The best shots are in the first 2 minutes and the last several minutes. The use of classical music makes sense for the plot but at times the stature of the music just underscores the generic quality of most of the filming. It doesnu0026#39;t have the lush beauty required to sell this story. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt wants to be the Shining, the Omen, Blue Velvet or Donu0026#39;t Look Now. Itu0026#39;s not. At minimum it would need 10 times the budget to look that good. I believe the director could do more if he had more to work with but the reviews comparing the movie to those things as if they are on the same footing are deeply dishonest. It aspires to those heights and canu0026#39;t begin to reach them. That said, for an unknown horror flick itu0026#39;s pretty good. You get the feeling the director could remake it with real money and a tighter script and knock it out of the park.”