House of Last Things (2013)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This was an excellent spooky movie. The plot pulls you along with a sense of growing creepiness as the main characters move along their character arc. The acting and production are top-quality, much better than I expected from a low-budget thriller. And the effective use of classical music pieces adds to the overall atmosphere of "the house," especially toward the end. I hear that the creative people behind this movie are planning to make another. I'm eager to see it.

An almost constant stream of surprises, "House of Last Things" is a bizarre delight from start to finish. It's never truly frightening but always quizzically intriguing. Though the quasi haunted house story makes "a kind" of sense by the end, I'm glad writer/director Bartlett left enough ambiguity intact to haunt until the next viewing (I've seen it twice now and appreciate all the cross referencing, time and space shifts and symbolic details - much care went into this). All the actors do a decent job, particularly the otherworldly little boy. Extremely impressive cinematography and transitions. Those looking for a straight genre exercise will most likely be frustrated by the oblique fragmented story however that is precisely the kind of film I love. Also, it isn't easy to make golf courses and yellow balloons threatening.

House of Last Things ReviewFrom the first bite of an apple, clues aplenty set up a world of wonderment. A happenstance crime wraps itself around a duplicitous music critic, his grieving wife, their house sitter and her brother and boyfriend. The crime involves an eight-year-old who evolves preternaturally after his victimization. The writer/director, having reverse-engineered plot events into clues, guides his talented cast through a labyrinth of horror. For example, a garden-hose/snake suggests something is awry in Eden. Yellow balloons watch and warn like a tragic Greek chorus. Strangers become Sybils.Deciphering some of the twists is like tap dancing on quicksand. However, therein lies the entertainment of untangling lies.Much of the fun of this film derives from skilled editing. Some say that film is a director's medium, although editors have stepped front and center. How fortunate to have both in one, e.g., Welles, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Cameron. (Spoiler Alert unnecessary.) Director/editor Bartlett exploits the roundness of apples, balloons, drains, golf balls, door knobs, breasts, buttocks, mouths, drains, eyes, soup bowls, tree holes, droplets of blood. And for those so inclined, there are yuck moments. As Pseudolus sings, "Something appealing, / Something appalling, / Something for everyone . . . ."The House of Last Things calls you.

A very enjoyable movie with a strange, but believable(in the fantasy sense) story line. The acting is the strong and the character development memorable. It does require careful viewing to follow the story, but it is well worth it and you feel totally engrossed in the film by the end. The character played by Blake Berris is especially memorable: his transformation probably one of the best parts of the movie. Lindsey Haun 's character anchors the story .. she is sort of the "straight man" for the usual events that unfold around her. She also somehow becomes even prettier as the movie progresses. The sets and atmosphere lend a matter of fact tone to what is a strange tale indeed.