gavin6942 In rural Alabama, two couples find themselves in a fight for survival. Running from a maniac (The Tin Man) bent on killing them, they flee deep into the woods and seek refuge in a house. They soon realize the killer has purposely lured them to this house and that they are now trapped.The best thing about this film? An incredible genre cast: Michael Madsen, Leslie Easterbrook, Bill Moseley, Lew Temple and even Lance Henriksen. Director Robby Henson's work has also attracted such acclaimed actors Billy Bob Thornton, Patricia Arquette, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Cooper, William DeVane and Kris Kristofferson. This is not one of the better films, though.We have terrible acting (especially from the country-singing wife), awful direction, and cinematography that seems obsessed with blue /green coloration for no reason. Moseley plays his usual self, and audiences are getting sick of it.Although it is hard to say for sure, one assumes the novel by Frank E. Peretti and Ted Dekker has to be better than the film it became. The novel is apparently Christian fiction, though it seems odd with such lines as, "God came to my house and I killed him."

suite92 Jack and Stephanie (a writer and a singer) drive in Alabama. Jack is driving too fast, and a cop passes him. The cop had gone ahead to block off part of the road next to an accident. Jack runs over some of the cop's cones, so they have a conversation. Jack asks for the quickest way back to the Interstate, and the cop gives them a shortcut. This turns out very badly: there is a car partially blocking the dirt road, and a do-it-yourself spike strip over the rest of the path. So, they are in the middle of nowhere with two flat tires and one spare.Jack and Stephanie find a house with lights on inside, which looks promising. There is a guest register. Randy and Leslie (grad student in psychology, and a real estate developer) are the other involuntary 'guests,' who also ran over the same sharp iron and got flats on their BMW. Shortly after the two couples start exploring, the electricity goes out, and the men go looking for the generator.The owners, Stewart and Betty, plus son Pete, greet them and give them some so-so news, like indifferent telephone service, no likelihood of tow trucks coming in the night, and 20 USD/person to stay the night. Pete does fix the electricity, and Betty sets a nice table.At the dinner, the weirdness starts. The ice is impossibly cold, visions start showing up, the owners are rather menacing. When Leslie tries to leave, a menacing figure shows up at the front lawn. Betty is rather discouraged, and asks them what they did in order to bring forth the Tin Man. Leslie starts reading newspaper clippings glued to a wall, recounting an accident some years past.Betty identifies the figure as the Tin Man. She says that he comes only for the guilty. The Tin Man drops in a tin can with rules on it. They need to deliver a body to the Tin Man by morning, or else he will kill all of them. Stewart and Betty attempt to lock the quartet in the meat locker, but they fight back.So, do any of the protagonists survive? Just who are Stewart, Betty, Pete, and Tin Man, anyway? Do the guilty secrets of the young quartet surface? What secrets are contained in the house? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 7/10 Too dark, with focus a bit too soft.Sound: 5/10 A bit hollow at times. Also, the synchronisation between actors' lips and spoken words is off, giving the impression that the whole thing is dubbed without sub-titles.Acting: 6/10 Not great, but better than in many similar films. Lew Temple, Leslie Easterbrook, Bill Moseley, and Michael Madsen were fine, though Madsen's role was rather short.Screenplay: 5/10 Familiar themes with not much original, though the ending did seem to be borrowed from another genre. The story does move right along.

Claudio Carvalho While driving through a secondary road for a meeting with a marriage counselor in Montgomery, Alabama, the estranged couple Jack Singleton (Reynaldo Rosales) and Stephanie Singleton (Heidi Dippold) ask for directions to a Police Officer (Michael Madsen) but they have a car accident with a metal part left on the road. Jack realizes that his Mustang has two flat tires and they see an abandoned Beamer parked on the road with the head lights on and flat tires.Jack and Steph walks in the rain seeking for help. They see an inn where they meet the businessman and owner of the Beamer, Randy Messsarue (J.P. Davis), and his fiancée Leslie Taylor (Julie Ann Emery). Out of the blue, the weird owners Pete ( Lew Temple), his mother Betty (Leslie Easterbrook) and Stewart (Bill Moseley) welcome the guests and invite them to have dinner. Sooner they are chased by the owner and the maniac The Tin Man and they find that they are trapped in the evil house. Further, for surviving, they lean that they must kill one of them in accordance with The Tin Man's rules. But the mysterious girl Susan (Alana Bale) befriends Jack and advises that if anyone kills, he or she will definitely belong to The Tin Man.The underrated "House" is a surprisingly entertaining horror tale. The creepy story is not a masterpiece, but I was misled believing that it would be another torture film and not a supernatural thriller. Leslie Easterbrook, in the role of Betty, and Lew Temple, in the role of Pete, are very scary and creepy. The plot is not a masterpiece and does not explain well the presence of Susan, but I liked this movie. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Jogos de um Psicopata" ("Games of a Psycopath")

rdbrown-zeteo To go away liking this movie... you have to understand that it is more than just a haunted house movie... the house represents something more... it is a personification. It's based from a book "House" which is a Christian thriller... but the book isn't straight forwardly Christian... there is just a lot of undertones and messages and implications... and symbolism... and what not. If you don't understand these things then you may see this movie as pointless movie where people are trapped in a house or something with an unspeakable horror... Then... so you know... the movie really isn't that scary. It is. But on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest) i'd say that it is a 2 or 3. It is creepy, the characters are creepy, the feel and look of the movie is different and somewhat creepy... so in other words the atmosphere of the movie is creepy... but the movie isn't so scary that you will have nightmares. Now... the movie isn't the best... but it is still entertaining to watch and especially fun to watch with girls who get scared and jump easily. There are a few spots that will have you jumping... possibly... I read the book so there were no surprises in the movie except for the ending which was changed up a little... but it wasn't disappointing to me that it was a little different. Don't go into it expecting tons of scares and not being able to go around the house by yourself or anything like that. But you can expect a little bit of entertainment and hopefully you will see what the writer of the book and creator of the movie are attempting to get you to see. Some people will watch the movie and completely overlook that this movie offers food for thought or a message to think about... you may not see it if you're not looking... so be sure to look.