REVIEW: The Open House

13 Reasons Why star Dylan Minnette stars in new Netflix horror, but is it a hit or a miss?

Released: 19 January 2018 | Certificate: 15 | Running Time: 1h 34min

Written and directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, a grieving mother and son move into an open house where they discover they’re not quite alone.

Logan Wallace(Dylan Minnette) tragically lost his father after he was run down outside a grocery store, which left him and his mother Naomi (Piercey Dalton) unable to live in their family home. An offer from Naomi’s sister, Allison (Katie Walder) led the pair to her second house in the mountains, to stay until things settle down. However, the house is up for sale, meaning that every Sunday they must leave while potential buyers visit the house.

The film starts out well; letting the viewers bond with the characters and setting the surroundings well – it’s a clear slow burner. The house is stereotypical of the creepy horror/thriller genre – an eerie mansion in the middle of nowhere.

A few creaks and bangs are heard by Logan, which are passed off as typical ‘old pipes’ by Naomi. Things escalate as items mysteriously disappear and reappear in new places, and bonds are put to breaking point as accusations are thrown around between the mother and son duo.

13 Reasons Why star, Dylan Minnette

Suspects are slowly dropped into the picture; first is the creepy neighbour, Martha (Patricia Bethune). Martha seems to have no filter when discussing personal or sensitive topics and is incredibly nosy. At first Martha admits that her husband died, but then backtracks when she tells Naomi she and her husband visited the open house, to ‘see the house one last time’ – sketchy, right? Is Martha’s husband dead or alive? What did she mean by one last time?

The next suspect is the plumber. We only see the plumber for a very short period of time but one of the first things he says is pretty suspicious. As he enters the house he admits that he has actually been to the property a few times. After looking at the boiler he claims to have changed a few parts to hopefully fix the problem – but the impression given was that an intruder was turning the boiler off rather than the boiler being faulty? Just before the plumber leaves he hands Logan’s misplaced phone over to Naomi, stating he found it next to the boiler; did he actually find it or was he the one that took it in the first place?

The final suspect is sales assistant, Chris. Chris meets Naomi in a store and obviously and overly starts flirting with her. Chris slips Naomi his number which Logan later calls and asks him to come over and inspect the house. Logan and Chris search the house and have an awkward bonding moment, then Chris takes the couch for the night.

During the night Logan awakes and ventures downstairs, where he finds the couch empty and the front door open. After investigating outside to find Chris’ dead body, Logan is ambushed from behind and is knocked unconscious; water is then poured over him and he is left to freeze in the cold.

While Logan is essentially freezing to death outside, the mystery assailant adventures into the house and attacks Naomi, tying her up and torturing her. She is first punched in the face repeatedly, and then one-by-one the assailant breaks her fingers in a mildly gruesome torture scene.

For reasons unknown, the intruder leaves a knife on the floor next to Naomi for Logan to find – which he ends up using to accidentally stab his mother with, most probably killing her. Logan is attacked again and has his contact lenses removed so he can’t see. Logan runs through the woods until daybreak, where he stops at a stream to drink. Black boots are seen behind Logan’s head, as it turns out the killer has been following him the whole time. The shot ends with Logan screaming ‘don’t hurt me’.

The film ends showing a car driving past an open house sign, and a shot of Logan’s lifeless body. This was probably the point where you began to question the past 90 minutes of your life. Who was the killer, why did he want the Wallace’s out of the house so badly, and why are we so confused? If you find yourself googling the ending of a movie, then it’s fair to say it’s failed to hit the mark. The only thing that kept eyes glued to the screen was the final reveal; the moment where everyone sighs and says ‘I should have known’, however that scene was snatched from us, and in its place was the moment of ‘erm, I don’t get it’.

The Open House was definitely a let-down; sometimes films can get away with being vague, however this film is not one of them. The majority of the film was OK to say the most, but the unimaginative ending was really what killed this movie.