When you engage in any artistic endeavour, I guess you hope that anyone who reads/hears/goes to see what you've created will get it. Will see what you've done - appreciate the detail, appreciate the shout-outs and the easter-eggs you've hidden for them.
I watch almost every horror/thriller/supernatural movie made, save torture-porn and straight up hack n' slash, because I love suspense. I love jeopardy. I love creepy. But for a long time, I've been frustrated, as I think have so many viewers of these genres, at the ridiculous decisions the characters make.
House At The End of the Street doesn't do that. Not once - at least by my count. The world Max Tonderai (and let's not forget the writers, David Loucka and Jonathan Mostow) have created, is a believable one, albeit a little on the dark side for your average suburban teenage love story (which, incidentally, this is not).
In an interview with Perri Nemeroff*, Tonderai was quoted saying: "I got really annoyed with the critical response that we got from it because it was like a lot of the critics were going to the film and looking at it, but they weren't seeing it. It’s a very big difference, you know? There’s a phenomenal amount of detail and thought processes that went into the film."
I'm not a film critic, and wouldn't claim to be, and I don't write movie reviews. So why write this one? Well, as a writer trying to create something that's both fantastic and as believable as possible, within a genre, while trying to create something original in a world where almost every idea has already been explored, I recognise effort when I see it.
I watch almost every horror/thriller/supernatural movie made, save torture-porn and straight up hack n' slash, because I love suspense. I love jeopardy. I love creepy. But for a long time, I've been frustrated, as I think have so many viewers of these genres, at the ridiculous decisions the characters make.
House At The End of the Street doesn't do that. Not once - at least by my count. The world Max Tonderai (and let's not forget the writers, David Loucka and Jonathan Mostow) have created, is a believable one, albeit a little on the dark side for your average suburban teenage love story (which, incidentally, this is not).
In an interview with Perri Nemeroff*, Tonderai was quoted saying: "I got really annoyed with the critical response that we got from it because it was like a lot of the critics were going to the film and looking at it, but they weren't seeing it. It’s a very big difference, you know? There’s a phenomenal amount of detail and thought processes that went into the film."
I'm not a film critic, and wouldn't claim to be, and I don't write movie reviews. So why write this one? Well, as a writer trying to create something that's both fantastic and as believable as possible, within a genre, while trying to create something original in a world where almost every idea has already been explored, I recognise effort when I see it.
The first draft of Just Drink was written under the title 'Shaiyan' more than 14 years ago. It took 17 days to complete and sat at 85,000 words. It was my third full-length novel and my best effort to date (at that time). Since then, I have agonised over it, unable to edit it to the point where I felt happy to release it - to the point where I felt I'd answered all the questions readers might have, including those pesky 'but why did they?" questions that Cinema Sins is so fond of asking.
I've used this book to learn how to write. The first two novels will never see the light of day, but this one - I want to share this one.
But back to my point - I went looking for more information on this film after I watched it precisely because that detail, that effort, shone through and I got a sense of the exhaustive process behind it. This film was really, really good in that every character was a person. And you care more about what happens where it's happening to people.
It completely robbed me of the experience of rolling my eyes and saying 'I bet....' (fill in the blanks) because not only was I not trying to guess (I was engaged with the action) - I wouldn't have guessed.
No spoilers here, but I hope the final scene makes you laugh with joy as I did. Satisfaction rating, 10.
It's not The Babadook, one of a handful of movies in this cluster of genres that I rate very highly - and I don't think it's trying to be. But it's right. It's what a good Horror/Mystery/Thriller should be, and it just gave me a spark of joy seeing it play out. I definitely recommend you see it.
* read the original interview here.
