Star Rating:

House at the End of the Street

Director: Mark Tonderai

Actors: Elisabeth Shue, Max Thieriot, Jennifer Lawrence

Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001

Running time: 101 minutes

Does anyone else think Jennifer Lawrence is all that? Let me rephrase: Does anyone else think Jennifer Lawrence is all that lately? Wonderful in Winter's Bone, yes, however she has been pretty uninspired since. Maybe it's the roles – she was quite good in a smallish role in Like Crazy – but The Beaver, X-Men and The Hunger Games didn't call on her to build on the sterling performance of Winter's Bone. In her latest, a bland thriller/horror, the material here matches her scene for scene.

Lawrence plays Ellis, a normal teen angry at mum (Shue) for moving her from Chicago to a rural neighbourhood on the edge of a national park. She has legitimate beef because the people here aren't nice – the local boy is a dick, his mother dismisses Africa and Tibet as 'those starving places' and his father, who facilitated the move, lied when he said the Jacobson house, which they can see from their front door, is deserted. No, teenage boy Ryan Jacobson (Thieriot) lives there all alone since his younger sister (Eva Link) butchered their parents four years ago. Against the wishes of mum, Ellis strikes up a friendship with the despised loner who seems to be hiding a secret or five.

You might read reviews that will give away a lot more than that because, to its credit, The House At The End Of The Street gives away a major secret earlier than usual, duping the audience into second guessing what to expect. Unlike most 'spooky guy next door' movies, director Tonderai (working from a story by Terminator 3's Jonathan Mostow) doesn’t mind showing us exactly what is going on next door early doors (or shows us what he wants to show us until he shows us later that what he showed us before wasn’t... Argh!) It's even more duping in that it's not as clever as you think it is. It's showing us stuff early because it doesn't really have anything else to offer. But we only find that out when it's too late.

So while Tonderai kept me guessing why he showed me a twist so soon, he also kept me guessing on why his flashbacks looked like Cold Case, and why Shue and Gil Bellows were getting so much screen time, and which house is the one at the end of the street, and shouldn’t that be 'road'? Anyway...

While some reviews may discuss Lawrence's subtle turn, that she does more with less, the fact of the matter remains that she is coasting here; giving the same performance she has been turning in for the last two years. With Shue on worrying mother/disappointed wife duties (when she isn't flirting with Gil Bellows' local cop, that is), Max Thieriot oddly becomes what the eye is drawn to, nailing the little boy lost/creep vibe he's after.

Thieriot and the guessing game aside, it really is a bland and forgettable offering with Tonderai succumbing to the quick pan/loud noise, broken flashlights at inopportune moments and creepy girls with Ring hairstyle clichés. Let's hope Lawrence turns up in something better soon and realises her potential.