Open House (2010)

Newly divorced Rachel Blanchard is putting her house on the market and starting afresh. Whilst an estate agent is showing prospective buyers around, meek-looking Brian Geraghty sneaks in and hides. Later that night when Blanchard is having a friend over (Anna Paquin), Geraghty pops out, kills Paquin, grabs Blanchard and locks her in the basement. He is soon joined by his evil partner in crime Tricia Helfer who is under the impression that everyone is dead, as this is apparently something they do for kicks. Actually, what they do for kicks is have Helfer seduce people and Geraghty comes along and kills them mid-coitus. The house is really just the vehicle for their sick little games. Whilst Helfer is at work (or something) during the day, Geraghty lets Blanchard out of the basement to keep him company. And wouldn’t you know it, Blanchard doesn’t much like Geraghty’s company and continually looks for an escape. Stephen Moyer turns up as Blanchard’s ex, who has an unfortunate encounter with Helfer in a hot tub.

This horror-thriller is written and directed by debutant Andrew Paquin, and features his sister Anna in a cameo as well as her hubby Stephen Moyer (her “True Blood” co-star) in a role only slightly larger (or at least longer). That’s about the most interesting thing here folks, as the film is extremely slow and whilst one is intrigued to work out where it’s going, there’s not enough of interest going on until we get there. There’s not enough meat on the bones, as I was getting impatient waiting for it to go somewhere, let alone working out whether Geraghty and Helfer were siblings or lovers or both. It’s later implied that they’re siblings, but Paquin hasn’t got the guts to really commit to it. At least that would actually be something.

Meanwhile, it was making no sense to me why Geraghty was keeping Blanchard alive when he was happy to bump everyone else off (Some have suggested that he was sweet on Blanchard, but for me that was only evident towards the end and thus, too late). I just didn’t see the point of what Geraghty and Helfer were doing, let alone what Geraghty seemed to be doing behind Helfer’s back. The script is seriously underdone, and it all completely falls apart at the unsatisfactory end after having been dying a slow death before that. I appreciate the intrigue, but not when the film ends up offering no answers, let alone entertainment value.

Geraghty isn’t bad in a performance somewhere in between Crispin Glover and Karlheinz Boehm, he’s quite brutal at times. Unfortunately, because Helfer is the real villain here, it kinda cuts him off at the knees a bit. Anna Paquin and Rachel Blanchard (poor girl, forever remembered as the chick who isn’t Alicia Silverstone) are both hot, but this is bland, clichéd, and undernourished.

OVERALL SUMMARY
Routine psycho/kidnap horror flick. You’ve seen it before and better, though at least it’s not as awful and bare-bones as “The Strangers”.