House of Fears starts in a region of Africa where a archaeological dig has uncovered some artifacts including a little statue that is possessed by an evil god, an evil god that know's peoples fears & turns them into reality in order to kill that person. Jump to Salem in Oregon in the US where stepsisters Samantha (Corri English) & Hailey (Sandra McCoy) are enjoying a party at a friends house when Zane (Eliot Benjamin) suggest they & a few other select friends visit the soon to open House of Fears attraction where he is the tour guide & as such has a set of keys to enjoy a sneak peek before it opens to the general public. Once there the group quickly find out that the House of Fears is divided into nine separate sections with each one covering a common fear from suffocation to knives to spiders. It just so happens that the little possessed statue is also there for decoration & the teen friends soon find themselves being killed by their worst fears which become reality...
Executive produced & directed by Ryan Little this fairly tame teen slasher has a decent enough idea behind it & has pretty good production values but ultimately it never delivers on it's promise & it just ends up being another faceless low budget horror film the likes of which clutter video shop shelves & fill bargain bins right across the world. The usual problems plague House of Fears, a shallow script that has an OK concept but never builds on it as dumb teen character's wander around a lot, stop to talk about how they shouldn't stop (I'm not joking) & eventually split up so they can get killed off. All of them are walking clichés, there's the token black guy, the prankster, the slut, the 'good' girl & a bratty spoilt one along with a all American white teen hero. Then there's that concept about this demon god thing turning peoples fears into reality to kill them, there could have been some great sequences built around this with all sorts of possibilities as & there could have been some psychological depth here to as character's have to face up to their greatest fear & overcome it but instead we just get a killer scarecrow & an undertaker who just turn out to be the Freddy or Jason murderer character, there's very little imagination here & it's predictable too. The first half of the film has these six teens looking around this House of Fears after hours & this is probably the films highlight as several cheap but reasonable jump moments are shown & the locations & sets are surprisingly good but once the killing starts it's strictly teen slasher territory & not particularly good teen slasher territory either. This could have been pretty good but as it is it isn't.
The production values are surprisingly good with nice sets but the shot on video look cheapens it, I so wish filmmakers still used proper grainy film like they used to. House of Fears is very tame indeed, there's no real gore or violence in it, there are a few dead bodies seen with a bit of blood dribbling out of one's mouth, someone is electrocuted & that's about it. Although the film is supposed to be about peoples fears it's not scary in itself, simply not enough happens but there are one or two cheap horror film moments that do work to an extent but nothing groundbreaking or sustained. Although made in 2007 House of Fears was only released on DVD in the states at the end of 2009 & you can see why.
This looks alright to be fair to it but that's not really enough reason to see it. The acting isn't that good from anyone involved who were obviously cast for their looks rather than their thespian ability.
House of Fears is another low budget horror slasher that doesn't really distinguish itself from the crowd except that it's even tamer than most modern low budget horror & it had potential that it didn't live up to. There are better ways to spend both your time & money.
Executive produced & directed by Ryan Little this fairly tame teen slasher has a decent enough idea behind it & has pretty good production values but ultimately it never delivers on it's promise & it just ends up being another faceless low budget horror film the likes of which clutter video shop shelves & fill bargain bins right across the world. The usual problems plague House of Fears, a shallow script that has an OK concept but never builds on it as dumb teen character's wander around a lot, stop to talk about how they shouldn't stop (I'm not joking) & eventually split up so they can get killed off. All of them are walking clichés, there's the token black guy, the prankster, the slut, the 'good' girl & a bratty spoilt one along with a all American white teen hero. Then there's that concept about this demon god thing turning peoples fears into reality to kill them, there could have been some great sequences built around this with all sorts of possibilities as & there could have been some psychological depth here to as character's have to face up to their greatest fear & overcome it but instead we just get a killer scarecrow & an undertaker who just turn out to be the Freddy or Jason murderer character, there's very little imagination here & it's predictable too. The first half of the film has these six teens looking around this House of Fears after hours & this is probably the films highlight as several cheap but reasonable jump moments are shown & the locations & sets are surprisingly good but once the killing starts it's strictly teen slasher territory & not particularly good teen slasher territory either. This could have been pretty good but as it is it isn't.
The production values are surprisingly good with nice sets but the shot on video look cheapens it, I so wish filmmakers still used proper grainy film like they used to. House of Fears is very tame indeed, there's no real gore or violence in it, there are a few dead bodies seen with a bit of blood dribbling out of one's mouth, someone is electrocuted & that's about it. Although the film is supposed to be about peoples fears it's not scary in itself, simply not enough happens but there are one or two cheap horror film moments that do work to an extent but nothing groundbreaking or sustained. Although made in 2007 House of Fears was only released on DVD in the states at the end of 2009 & you can see why.
This looks alright to be fair to it but that's not really enough reason to see it. The acting isn't that good from anyone involved who were obviously cast for their looks rather than their thespian ability.
House of Fears is another low budget horror slasher that doesn't really distinguish itself from the crowd except that it's even tamer than most modern low budget horror & it had potential that it didn't live up to. There are better ways to spend both your time & money.