666 Demon Child (2004)

An old man walks through the desert until it’s dark. He opens a hole in a stone carving using a tiny medallion, crawls inside and finds a couple eggs.  He hauls them out and walks some more. When he tries to cross a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, he ends up under the wheels of the only vehicle around for fifty miles.

Inside the camper are six people with expertise in archaeology.  Doc found some relics on his last trip and has convinced the others to accompany him.  The artifacts were authenticated by three labs who say they are 500,000 years old.  The others say that can’t be right because there was no metal work at that time. Doc counters that only applies to humans.

When the camper hits the old man, they all run outside and he’s lying peacefully underneath as if he’s taking a nap. Two of the occupants  head off to the store nearby for help. There is no phone so they bring the man to the store and drive off to get help.  Soon they discover Daryl has stolen one of the strange large eggs and stashed it in the closet. Shortly after this, the egg cracks and Jean starts screaming, “Kill it! Kill it!” Then Daryl is killed by a demon baby. More deaths and shenanigans follow. 

This is hard to get through. The baby appears to be rubber. They have to hold it against themselves and flail to stimulate an attack. The sound of the demon baby is annoying as hell. It’s a repetitive sound of a baby doll crying mixed with other annoying sounds. 

At one point someone in the camper calls someone Greg, yet the male characters are Daryl, Stephen and Doc/Bryce. Jean is an odd character that seems to have an issue with getting blankets.  At the accident someone says gets a blanket but Jean doesn’t move and looks at Becky, who ends up getting it. Later Jean is curled up on the couch. Becky asks her if she’s still cold and does she want a blanket. She does. Good god Jean, why can’t you get a blanket?!

Ridiculous dialogue

Daryl: No one was working metal 500,000 years ago.

Doc: No humans were.

Daryl: An old man stepped out in front of us. He’s hurt pretty bad and we’re afraid to move him

Ben: You can’t leave him on the road all night.

It’s afraid of the knife.

The giants and us are related.

Anything that can survive thousands of years as an egg and then rip apart a grown man seconds after it hatches isn’t normal.

Get ready for five minutes of beautiful scenery,
an old man walking, and no dialogue 

Why so glum

This is the special effects budget

Doc and 

Getting run over by a camper looks fairly peaceful.
No blood or injury or a rip in his clothing.

Hold the demon baby and flail

Creepiest thing in the movie

Doc is going for help, yet he stops to bury someone and
then collapses from the heat. Good job Doc

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987)

After some marines disappear, Army Rangers Joe and Curtis arrive as replacements. The marines are not impressed. But Joe and Curtis are no ordinary rangers. They’ve got a particular set of skills that come in handy, which are critical thinking and ninjitsu.

The island they’re on has a huge problem with ninja attacks, yet no one seems to notice or know of the ninjas.  They’re in the hotel, in the bar, in alleys, and hanging off cars. Yet when Joe and Curtis talk of being attacked by ninjas, the marines are skeptical and the local police scoff at them.

It turns out the local villain who owns Blackbeard Island is known as the Lion. He’s kidnapped a scientist trying to cure cancer and forced him to make a serum that turns people into murderous super ninjas.  And where do they get the people to experiment on? Well they kidnap marines naturally because they’re theoretically already in good shape. They’re certainly not going to take the chubby thugs outside the bar with dirt all over their clothing and faces.

Joe and Curtis rescue the scientists daughter after she’s dragged out of a party at the governors mansion. How dare she accuse the Lion of impropriety.  Meanwhile the head ninja kills all the super ninjas in a demonstration to potential investors which makes you wonder how that’s supposed to sell the super ninja project.

Oh Golan Globus, you’ve given us another silly ninja movie complete with a ninja on a string.  Plus a hilarious continuity oversight where the corrupt police chief puts his hat on as he walks towards the door.  Cut to another angle of him almost at the door where he puts his hat on again.

Ridiculous dialogue

Ninja? What the hell are ninja?

You look as much like a marine as a bridesmaid.

Tommy: He’s doing research.

Joe: what kind of research?

Tommy: I don’t now. They don’t tell me. It’s biological stuff.

Terror at London Bridge (1985)

In 1971 all but one stone of the London Bridge was moved to Lake Havasu, Arizona as part of their English village tourist attraction. Fourteen years later, the missing stone was located in the Thames River and brought over to be set in place. The night before the dedication, a tourist walking on the bridge trips, cuts her finger on the stone and before you know it, poof! Jack the Ripper appears to murder her.

Assigned to the case is Don, who just moved from the south side of Chicago to get away from crime and accidentally killing a child.  Don draws immediate ire from Whitfield, head of the city council, who says the English village must stay open. They just dedicated the bridge, there is money to be made and no cop is going to tell him it’s closed. Don calmly explains people can’t be traipsing through a murder scene.  

The city council decides there’s no need for an investigation since the murderer must be a transient who wanted the money from the tourists purse. But Don thinks there’s more to it than that since usually robbers don’t kill once they have the cash. When he talks to a reporter off the record, she betrays him and reveals his theory in the paper.  Whitfield demands Don be fired, but the chief just mutters not to mess up again.

When the medical examiner informs Don there was a second blood type in the wound and it was old blood, Don suspects this may not be the killers first victim. As more people in town are killed, Don puts together the murders match up to the death dates of Jack the Ripper’s victims.  He also discovers the shoe print and hand writing on letters match pictures of evidence in the Ripper case.  He thinks Jack is back, which seems crazy but he’s right.

This is a tv movie so it’s fairly tame. It’s not the most interesting, but the premise is ridiculous which is a plus.  The score is done by Lalo Schifrin, who is one of my favorites and has done a number of great soundtracks for films. Probably his most well known composition is the theme from Mission Impossible. 

Watch for the scene with the band in which the song must be called Just a Modern Man since they say it eleven times in a row before ending the song. Also when the tourists wife goes missing, he approaches the Chief of Police and Head of City Council Whitfield during the dedication ceremony.  The chief tells him they can go to the police station after the ceremony, and Whitfield tells him to get lost.  You wonder why he wouldn’t go to the police station but he did. They sent him to the bridge. Why not take a report or try to help him rather than just send him off on his own to find the chief during the middle of a ceremony?  

Ridiculous dialogue

Tourist: My wife is missing. I demand you do something.

Head of City Council: Get rid of him.

Don’t worry about your wife. People don’t disappear in Havasu.

Creepy British guy:  There is evil here. It must be cleansed! I work for the higher power.

Joe: Well you are out of work now.

Zombie Night (2003)

Mark, his girlfriend Amber and daughter Emily are driving home from a week at a cabin when the news reports a nuclear war has begun overseas.  In the few minutes they’re listening, it goes from war overseas to martial law in this county to the undead are attacking Washington.  There is no explanation of why the dead  are rising.

When their car dies, Mark decides they need to hide in a nearby warehouse.  They hole up in the basement where they find candles, blankets and emergency supplies. After a few days Amber and Emily want to go out, but Mark says he’ll check to see if there’s any radiation or fall out.  Hopefully someone tells him nuclear fall out is radiation and that he’d need more than his eyes to determine if it’s safe out.

Mark meets David who asks for help with his wife and they walk to a nearby building.  His wife is already dead.  Mark, who did not believe David when he said there were zombies even though the news said the dead had risen, begins to believe when David’s dead wife tries to attack him. A group of survivors show up out of nowhere. Mark assures everyone the building he’s in is safe so they grab the groceries David has and head out.

The villain of the story is revealed when Derek steals a bag of groceries for himself. Later that day he decides to leave and demands food and water (even though David provided it all). After leaving and discovering it’s not safe, he breaks down the door to get back in, thus risking the others lives.  

They look for another place to stay, meet another group of survivors while skulking past bikers and find another building. Derek tries to get a bunch of people to steal food and weapons, and leave with him.   Although David realizes Derek is a problem, others want to show mercy which is of course their undoing. You never show mercy to the weasel as he’ll get you killed.

The group barricades the staircase to the second floor in the laziest way possible by putting a stack of boxes on the landing and tying a rope around it for support.  Why not put two rows of boxes together and more boxes on the stairs? As you’d expect, Derek creeps in at night with his crew and cuts the ropes, thus allowing the zombies up the stairs. 

Questions are plentiful:

• How is Mark going to determine if radiation is outside? All he brought from his car was a pillow.
• Why do the dead only rise at night?
• Why were the bikers even in this when they never interacted with the others?
• How did no one die with the generator running inside?
• Where did the extra groceries come from?
• How did the dead get under piles of boxes?
• Why don’t the survivors have the self preservation to close the door?
• Why did the group not safe guard their food and weapons from Derek after he’d already stolen some the first time they were together?
• Why does Mark change his shirt between saying goodbye and jumping off the roof? Was there a continuity person on the film?
• Why look for Derek in the woods at night when it’s too dark to see him and he’ll see you coming from far away since you have flashlights?

Did they have more than one make up person? Sometimes it looks pretty good, but other times it’s just gray greasepaint. I once worked on a zombie movie where there were some amazing make up artists and others not so amazing. We could always tell when the head make up artist did the zombies because they looked like raccoons. 

Ridiculous dialogue

You know under normal circumstances, I might have hired you to tile my bathroom floor at best. But under the circumstances, I can’t think of a better man to take care of my family.

The siege of the zombies is now being declared a national emergency.

David:  I owe you.

Mark:  I’m going to take you up on that.

David:  Good because I don’t like to be in debt.

Aggressive attacks in open areas is the only way to survive this.

David: Are you finished?

Old guy:  No. Yes. My wife.

I didn’t know you smoked. [after only knowing him one day]

I beat cancer. I’m going to beat this too. [after being bitten by a zombie]

Only take what you can carry. 

The good make up

Did the same person go with clown white here?

A pillow is essential to survive a zombie attack

He wants safety from the zombies but leaves the door open

Our main character is dead

Mark’s girlfriend and child have no reaction to his dead body

The zombie who uses the handrail

The incredible stack of boxes meant to keep out zombies

Haunted Boat (2005)

A bunch of horrible people go out on a boat to celebrate a birthday.  The owners son says they need to clean it before they use it since his uncle left it this way. The ungrateful non-boat owning group tell him the boat is too smal and it’s a piece of crap. 

They head out to sea, get drunk and pass out. The next day Leo’s friend asks him to get up because the boats not moving. Wait. These idiots left the boat on autopilot while they got drunk and went to sleep? What is wrong with them? So they deserve what they get, which is stranded.

As they try to figure out how to get rescued, they have philosophical  conversations and talk about fears.  One says you don’t truly exist except in your own reality and we each live in our own universe.  So if you don’t want to believe in something, it doesn’t exist in your world.  That doesn’t sound healthy. 

This movie gives you the worst person to be stuck on a boat with and a group of people who have no interest in anyone but themselves, along with a parallel dimension, I guess. As if watching these jerks isn’t bad enough, the ending will make you feel as if you’ve completely wasted your time.

Ridiculous dialogue 

He’s never even looked at you. If he ever talked to you, it’s because you know me.

I’m not staying on board with an epileptic.

What a pretty litttle bird. Is it sick? [said about an obviously dead bird]

Our unlikeable group

The boat the kids think is too small

Maybe don’t use all the lights at once since you don’t know
how long till you can contact someone to get rescued

As if they haven’t enough problems - shark

Night Zero (2018)

Three couples at a dinner party argue and appear to generally not like their partners.  One couple is on the verge of a breakup due to suspected cheating.  Oh this sounds like such a fun night out.

After a lot of unpleasantness and much talking, they discover they’ve gotten together on the night of an alien invasion.  What to do? Well stay in the house, of course. Especially since the military is fighting the aliens using chemicals which are turning people into raging morons with no inhibitions.  Those impacted want to kill everyone they see.

The majority of the movie takes place in the house. Wait, what’s that sound? I think I need to change the battery in one of my smoke detectors. Oh the sound is in the movie. It drove me freaking nuts. Sure if there’s an alien attack, things might go haywire, but it’s a terrible decision to subject the viewer to a constant beeping. It’s not increasing the tension, just making me hate your movie.

The characters constantly make bad decisions. They shine their flashlights when they know there are crazy people outside who want to kill them.  Good god man, stop shining your flashlights out the door and windows. Now they know you’re in there. Also shining a flashlight through a window at night is not going to give you a good view of outside. It’s more going to light up the window like a lantern.

Then we’ve got a character running down the street with a flashlight.  How about being stealthy or avoiding people? Nope, just going to stand here shining my light around so the crazies know where to find me. And why does she have a flashlight in a well lit street? 

When she goes indoors, she continues to use a flashlight even though the lights are on. She also takes her mask off knowing that the chemicals make people into rage zombies. What the hell, lady? I hate her so much.

Who holds their flashlight like this unless they’re a cop?

You’re expecting something exciting like on the cover,
but all you get is this

E-Demon (2016)

Four college friends were involved in the Quad Murders, so called because all four had murders in their homes while on a group chat. This is the footage of what happened that night.

Kendra, Dwayne, AJ and Mars went to college together. Now their lives are busy and they get together on line to catch up and talk about the good old days. AJ has given everyone headsets with audio and video so they can move around while they talk.

The group acts like they’re still in college. They insult each other, and not in a fond way.  They argue about who invented freak out, which was what they called their pranks. And they continue the tradition of horrible pranks by pretending to attack people in their homes. So when something goes wrong, everyone thinks it’s a prank. Oh you’re dead? Right, it’s a prank.

As things start getting weird in each person’s home, they start questioning if it’s real or they are the only person not in on the prank. They’ve already done pranks within pranks on this call. So are the attacks more pranks? Are the murders real? Mars grandmother warned him not to open the cursed trunk in the attic because there was evil trapped inside. His great, great grandmother was killed for practicing witchcraft in Salem. So is that the problem? Sigh. 

This is not a good use of your time. Why does AJ think the virus is airborne when they’re all in different cities?  Why does Kendra type “where are you guys” in the chat when none of them are at their computers? Why do thirty year olds think pranks are funny?  Why does Kendra keep her brownies in her bedroom?  And why do people think they can dismiss anything derogatory they say by claiming it’s locker room talk?

Ridiculous dialogue

Anyone who interrupts me will get a personal ass whipping from me.

Holy shit, I got my moneys worth. You got freaked!

It’s just locker room talk.

Bastion - It sounds like it could be a demon trap. How did it break?

Dwayne - Hold on, what’s a demon trap?

Bastion - It’s what is sounds like.

So they chose to cut off her feet and keep three
feet of nothing at the top of the frame?

We get to see them type

Name another movie where you read Wikipedia

Another victim has entered the demon chat

Hex(2022)

Oh no, not the cursed skydiving formation!  Well I guess we have to make sure we don’t do the formation. Oh wait, we’ve already done it?  Well that doesn’t mean we’re all going to die, does it? I mean it’s just a legend, right?  [clunk]

Sarah comes back to town after a long absence and heads to the local skydiving club.  Payson knows her father was a skydiver and asks her to join his group. Sarah always dives alone so she’s noncommittal, but ends up showing up the next day after her mother says maybe she should make some friends in town.  

When Lisa is put out by Sarah being there, Payson informs the others he invited her because he wants to the Hex which requires six people. The first try goes badly, but the second time they complete it and Payson disappears.  The others are unsure what happened since no one can disappear in thin air, but Payson is nowhere to be found once they are on the ground.

The next day another member of the group dies while diving.  Now accidents are starting to happen to those in the group, and Sarah finds out the Hex is supposedly cursed. Any team who does the Hex dies. Payson was aware of this, but kept the others in the dark. So the question we’re left with is, will Sarah or and the others survive now that they’ve done the Hex?

The skydiving footage looks nice, but I know nothing about skydiving. Is the Hex formation super difficult? If your altimeter sticks, should you still dive?  If the altimeter is a big deal, then why did they jump?  How does Sarah not know how her father died? She’s an experienced skydiver and her father was known, but she never heard rumors he died after doing the Hex?  Seems like word would get around and someone would ask about it.

Watch for the guy in the background in the bar scene who stands there as if he’s going to be in the scene but ends up having nothing to do with them.  Also when Payson stands on the table in the bar, it appeared that he was going to shout to get the attention of everyone in the bar. Nope, it’s just a jerk standing on a table.

This is a silly horror movie.  It’s pretty easy to avoid dying by just not doing the Hex. The skydiving scenes have generic rock music during most of them that sound like something in a video game.

Cliche dialogue

Just cause you’re the new girl doesn’t mean you can’t make friends.

What is she doing here? 

Hunted (2022)

Aka Hounded 

Four people are hired by an antique dealer to break into houses and steal valuables.  They’re given an address, an item to find, and a time when the home owners will be out.  They are paid when they bring in the requested item.

The leader of the group is only doing this to make enough money to put his younger brother through college. His brother stays with the car so he is not involved in the actual breaking and entering.  The other two have criminal records and plan to continue their criminal career.

After making enough money for college, the leader tries to call it quits but the other say they want to keep going since they are good at what they do.  He reluctantly agrees to do one last job. His brother insists on going in this time.  While the house they enter looks like no one has been there for awhile, they are not alone and someone in the dark knocks them out.

When they awake they’ve been transported to the middle of nowhere, released and doused in fox urine.  Perplexed as to what is going on, they hear the sound of a hunt and gradually realize they are prey.  The family whose house they broke into think this is an adequate punishment. 

The biggest issue with this film is there are no sympathetic characters.  We’ve got four criminals who break into peoples houses to steal their possessions versus four horrible rich people. The two brothers are the most likable, but it’s hard to like a thief. 

Chest (2022)

Three years after the film crew of the tv show Dark Appalachia vanished, their footage is found.  The intros tell us Stephanie is the eyes (camera), Yancy is the ears (sound), Isabella is the brain (producer), and David is the voice (narration).  Then there’s Mark who does something else.  

Their next episode is about a legendary box wrapped in chains in a cave.  They set up an interview with Jeff, whose run down house in the middle of nowhere. He doesn’t want them inside and tells them to go out back.  

Jeff’s father and his friend Bob found the box while hunting. They headed home to get some tools to open it, but Jeff’s mother was in labor and they never went back. Later that year Bob killed himself and Jeff’s father died, prompting the story the box was cursed.

But what is the story? Two guys found a box? What was in it? Did anyone ever see it again?   How did this group hear of this story?   We’re twenty three minutes in and we have no idea what the legend.

The group asks if the curse is real and where they can find the cave. Jeff agrees to help them locate it, even though there was conflict with the group.  For some reason Stephanie wanders around the house and finds an old woman in a room. Everyone freaks out because Jeff said no one else was there, and the woman is screaming they’re all going to die. Jeff is mad because he said he didn’t want them in his house and says they upset his dementia addled grandmother.

The next day they head into the woods with Jeff, and we’re left wondering why they would spend the night in the woods with a man they know they can’t trust. Jeff disappears which is never explained. The group finds the cave, but the opening is made out of concrete. It’s confusing why this wouldn’t have made it easy to locate. They go into the cave and as expected, things go horribly wrong.

The footage is often out of focus. Many times the background is sharp and the foreground blurry.  It happens enough so that you start watching and waiting for it to happen again.  You don’t care about the characters and they make some questionable decisions.

Focus.

The cave that has a concrete structure at that top.

Hey guys, only the background is in focus.

Hey guys, nothing is in focus. Should we reshoot it?

Feral (2017)

Six college students go hiking and one brings a fur coat.  Because the first rule of hiking is always bring your fur.  That night they sit around the fire and talk.  Everyone is in med school except for Jules.  

This group is a mix of people you won’t find appealing.  Matt proposes to his milquetoast girlfriend Brienne. Jessie is dating Gina but wishes he were with Alice.  Alice is dating Jules and their banter includes calling each other country girl and city girl.  I hate them already.

During the night Matt wanders off to relive himself. He walks and walks and walks. I’m not sure why he didn’t just go behind a tree near the edge of the camp but his Victorian modesty puts him in a distant place where he’s an easy target for an animal attack. When Brienne goes looking for him, she is also attacked. Inexplicably everyone can hear Brienne scream while no one heard Matt scream from the same location.

In the morning while trying to figure out how to get Brienne to safety, they run into Talbot who has a cabin in the woods.  He tells them it’s 20 miles to the service road that leads back to the parking lot. Since Talbot doesn’t have a phone, Jessie and Jules start walking. Jessie figures if they can walk at 4mph, they’ll be back before sundown.  That’s a pretty fast pace to maintain for a 20 mile walk. 

It’s not a great idea to have Alice’s girlfriend hike with the guy who wants to date Alice. And after an argument, Jessie ends up with his foot in a bear trap.  While you’d expect Alice to wedge branches in there to force it open far enough for him to get his leg out, she weakly pulls on it and then runs off to get help. Since they already know there is something deadly in the woods, Jules is not cool.

Surprisingly Jules finds her way back to the cabin even though it’s dark. Talbot tells them not to go outside to get Jessie because there is something in the woods that comes out at night. After some violent prodding, he reveals what is out there. He says they’re friends who were attacked are going to turn. Alice is suspicious but instead of trying to work with him or learn more, she locks him in the basement.  This is the first of many bad decisions that will make you realize the best parts of the movie are behind you.

Ridiculous dialogue

It’s like a cellar or something. [said after opening a trap door to a basement]

Her hat is twice the size of her head

The Invitation (2015)

This one is probably best viewed by going in cold with no real knowledge of the plot. Will and his girlfriend Kira get invited to a dinner party at his ex-wife Eden’s home. None of their friends have seen Eden or her husband David for two years. 

The other guests are excited but Will is reserved.  He and Eden used to live here when they were married. Their five year old son died in the backyard in an accident at a party.  Also Eden met David at a group grief counseling session and left Will for him so that’s awkward. I’m not sure why Will would even go to this.

Eden and David are different but their friends say grief does things to people.  Everyone expected this to be a gathering of their old friend group, but two people they don’t know join them.  Both are a little odd. 

Will thinks something is off, but everyone else seems okay with what is taking place.  A strange party game results in one of the guests becoming uncomfortable and politely asking to leave. There is pressure to stay, but Will insists she be allowed to go.  

The night gets stranger when David and Eden reveal they’ve spent the last two years in Mexico in a commune called the Invitation.  The leader helps people deal with their grief, but Will is getting more uncomfortable with every new thing that happens. 

He’s convinced something is wrong, but his friends say everyone in Los Angeles is weird so of course the new people are strange. Kira is not alarmed at anything taking place and thinks Will is over reacting. Is Will’s grief skewing his critical thinking ability or is everyone else blind to the possibility that something is extremely wrong here? And why does David keep locking the door? Is it really due to home invasions in the neighborhood?  

It’s never a good idea when people who’ve been living in a commune show you a promotional video about  it.  This is a decent thriller where you question what is going on, and then question if you’re being too paranoid about questioning what is going on.

Bodom (2014)

Annikki and Pietari are students doing a project on the 1960s murders of three teens at Lake Bodom.  They rent a small house near the lake. The shutters are closed, the rooms are dark and there’s blood in the sink.  Annikki thinks she saw someone outside, but Pietari doesn’t believe her. Creepy yes, but they’re going to stay.

Annikki finds a rattler on the porch, which turns out to be a rattle, not a snake.  Every month for the past year she’s found one on her porch, and now one is here. Pietari thinks it’s a prank. I’m thinking he’s not a great person to do a school project with since he can’t put together this means someone has tracked them from their homes to this house in the middle of nowhere. 

While at the Lake, they meet another couple and Pietari invites them over that night.  Annikki is not amused as she wants to work on the project and they’ve already interviewed the couple. Why would she want to spend more time with them?

The house doesn’t have any lights and there is an awkward conversation with the other couple. Pietari tells the couple about Annikki’s past, and she is not happy with his betrayal of trust. They didn’t get along well to begin with and this makes everything worse. Strange things happen and there you go. Found footage time. 

Blood in the sink? I’m sure it’s fine

The Demon (2016)

A college kid asks his uncle for the key to his second house so he can have a party with his friends. His uncle replies he doesn’t have another house which you’d think would be the end of it. But when his uncle leaves the room, the kid finds the key and steals it.

What the kid doesn’t know is his uncle abandoned the house years ago after his wife passed away in it. He was warned by a priest to leave and never come back due to bad energy in the house.  

The group goes to the house and parties. It’s fairly tame since they just sit around a table eating.  Then the nephew puts on a Santa suit and everything goes to hell.  We’re about 39 minutes in before anything odd happens, and even then it’s not much.

This is a slow moving film.  The description says they’re celebrating New Year’s Eve so why is someone playing Santa? At one point the nephew locks the front door with the key. I’m not sure why, other than a plot point to make sure no one can escape when things go off the rails. The house has bars over the windows so the door is their only hope to get out. I can’t even remember the end of this one.

Darkness Rising (2017)

Maddie, her boyfriend Jake and cousin Izzy go to her childhood home the day before it’s to be demolished. The house has been closed for twenty five years since her mother murdered her baby sister.

Maddie’s come here to try to make sense of things, but Jake is worried because she’s having nightmares and seems obsessed with the number five. Izzy is excited about the possibility of looting what was left behind, but gets upset when the others don’t pay attention when she models her new vintage leather jacket.

Poking around awakens the evil in the house and strange things start to happen. A barking dog keeps them from leaving, no matter what door they try to open.  Jake discovers some sort of force field around the house and Izzy gets possessed.

Maddie comes up with an idea the house is the problem and why her Mom went insane. She says a house with the same architecture has been in a number of cities and the families who bought the house all went crazy and murdered each other.  I’m not confident in Maddie’s research skills to believe that she could track this down.

While the start of the film has promise, the longer it goes on the more disappointed you’ll be. If the house has been empty for twenty five years, why is it clean? Why does Maddie think a house scheduled to be demolished after 25 years vacant would have a working toilet?  Why would they go into the basement to find a window to crawl out of when there are larger windows on the first floor? Why is Maddie convinced the dog is her dog from twenty five years ago? Why do they need to go into the death nursery to flag down a passerby? If indeed the house can move from town to town to find new victims, then why did it sit abandoned for twenty five years rather than strike out on it’s own and find a new family? Why would it let itself be destroyed? Did no one notice when this house appeared overnight?  And most importantly if a house suddenly appears, how does it hire a realtor?  

Also there is a continuity issue with the caution tape repeatedly being strung across the front porch and then being down again. 

There is no dust, dirt or spiderwebs after 25 years

The kitchen looks freshly cleaned

Maddie’s childhood toy is still white and clean

Caution tape is up.

Caution tape is gone.