Film Review: 'House of the Witch'

This Halloween, Lana Brady (Emily Bader) and her friends have a special night planned at a scary hotspot in their town: the local haunted mansion. Dilapidated and the center of many a town urban legend, it's the perfect place for a Halloween get-together--and a spooky Halloween prank that Shane Reynolds (Darren Mann) has planned for Lana and their friends. Joining Lana and Shane are his girlfriend Rachel (Michelle Rudolph), Taylor (Arden Belle) and her boyfriend Brody (Jesse Pepe), and Dax (Coy Stewart).

But no sooner do they enter the infamous mansion that strange things begin to unnerve the group. While the kids initially dismiss the bizarre events as pranks, it becomes clear very soon that what is happening is disturbingly real. And with the doors locked and windows boarded, everyone's trapped inside the derelict house with a spirit intent on destroying them. By November 1st, this will be one Halloween Lana and her friends will never forget...

Deciding it would be fitting to post an explicitly Halloween-set film as my final movie review of the month (October 31st surprise to come!), I chose this SyFy Channel flick that's made its way to Netflix. House of the Witch also gives me some personal incentive to watch it. The film was shot in Lexington, Kentucky--a city that's only an hour's drive away from my hometown. While I might not have seen any familiar sights in House of the Witch due to taking place mostly in the titular house, there was definitely a lot of familiarity on display.

When it comes to story, House of the Witch is nothing new. It's essentially a mashup of two archetypal horror movie concepts: the "Haunted House" movie and the "20-somethings Get Hunted Down by a Malevolent Spirit" movie. Not helping the inherently cliché script is how flatly written the characters are. They all start out as your standard collection of horror movie tropes, with only a few of them getting any substantial development before the mansion horror show starts. Only Lana and Shane are given anything resembling a backstory, and what they get is pretty formulaic. No one in the primary cast gives a bad performance, and many of them shine when their paranormal nightmare begins taking a toll on their characters' psyches. But until then, the movie gives you little reason to really care what happens to Lana or any of her friends.

But once the witchy mayhem goes into full swing, House of the Witch becomes an entertaining watch in spite of its unoriginal story. Once the haunting starts, things quickly escalate from minor frights to outright torture, making clear that the witch of the title means business. While the movie stretches itself thin towards the end (by which point all the running around and shouting becomes a little stale), director Alex Merkin knows how to build tension. The mansion makes for an effectively foreboding set, and the consistent flow of scares is sure to keep you from getting restless. Cinematographer Dane Lawing does good work bringing the creepy atmosphere to life, as does the effects department responsible for the impressive gore. The CGI used isn't quite as good, but is still decent considering the movie's SyFy origins.

But going back to the wobbly script, there's one missed opportunity to add a dose of originality that I can't easily forgive. SPOILER ALERT Soon after arriving at the house, Lana discovers a photograph of Annabelle Foster--the executed witch haunting the mansion. With Lana's striking resemblance to Annabelle and the number of times the photo is lingered on, I was expecting a twist to come of it. Lana could've been revealed as a descendant of Annabelle's, and she could've even been in league with her evil ancestor to kill her friends and bring Annabelle back to life. It could've been a horrifying twist that would allow Lana to break away from the standard Final Girl mold--something that House of the Witch doesn't allow her to do until the admittedly chilling ending. Spoilers Over

As mentioned before, the performances make up for where the script's writing lets the characters down. Emily Bader (headlining this SyFy flick a year before she'd do the same for a Lifetime feature) makes for a solid Final Girl, with Lana standing out as the most level-headed of the group--even as she falls into the expected bouts of uncontrollable fear. Darren Mann brings ferocity to Shane as he fights to escape the house's clutches. Shane's backstory involving his stern stepfather makes his emergence as a surprise hero of the group an empowering turn for his character, and serves as a surprising shot of depth from an otherwise paint-by-numbers script. Michelle Rudolph and Jesse Pepe effectively sell their characters' states of emotional turmoil, as do Coy Stewart and Arden Belle. In Belle's case, the breakdown arc her character receives is much needed after Taylor is introduced as impossibly blasé and snide towards her friends.

If you're looking for a haunted house movie that has something new to offer, House of the Witch shouldn't be at the top of your Must Watch list. The script only sparsely gives its characters any depth, and the story is loaded with plot beats that have shown up in horror movies for decades. But with its well-executed sense of fright carried by the efforts of a capable cast, House of the Witch still makes for a solidly enjoyable movie. So if you're browsing Netflix looking for some good scary movies to cap off your Halloween night, consider paying a visit to House of the Witch.

Score: 6 out of 10 pirate costumes.