The Open House is now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix releases a lot of content, and they can’t all be gems. For every Stranger Things and 13 Reasons Why, there are countless failures like Adam Sandler films and Disjointed. In terms of movies, the streaming service has provided great ones like First They Killed My Father and Okja, but along comes this week’s foray into horror – The Open House – to remind us to keep expectations low.
Dylan Minnette plays Logan, who temporarily moves into a creepy house with his mother. See where this is going? The house is in the middle of nowhere. The basement is completely submerged in darkness. The villagers in the town act strangely. Yup, this is the most cliché horror movie I’ve ever seen.
What’s not cliché though, is how vague the mystery is. Viewers will be left feeling unsatisfied with the resolution, and there’s a lot that goes unexplained. In fact, the ending leaves The Open House open for a sequel, which unfortunately doesn’t seem like a stretch, seeing as how Netflix is making a second Bright.
Decent performances and a short runtime make The Open House watchable. It’s a shame how boring the story is, and quite frankly even the horror elements, like jump scares, don’t work well.
I give The Open House a D+.
TV and City 