Teig (Heather L.Tyler), Sirah (Sadie Katz) and their half-sister Lily
(Cheryl Sands) plan to leave their pasts as an ex-convict, a prostitute
and a junkie (respectively) behind and start a new life thanks to a stash
of drugs they have stolen from Sirah's boyfriend/pimp Tommy (Clint Jung).
Their plan: They hide out in the remote and long abandoned house of Teig
and Sirah's girlfriend until the smoke blows over and nobody comes looking
for them anymore, then Teig contacts her contacts and they sell the stuff
for a fortune. Great idea ... in theory. Actually though, there's a whole
host of problems: Teig doesn't like Lily, believing she has taken away her
father (even though daddy was an abusive asshole), Lily is on cold turkey
all too soon and on one occasion actually has to be tied to her bed, Teig
and Sirah have nothing but bad memories of the house they are now forced
to stay in, and in a weak moment, Sirah texts Tommy and unintentionally
lets him in on where they are - and when Tommy comes by, he is not exactly
in a good mood. Somehow, the three sisters manage to kill Tommy, but that
doesn't exactly improve their mood and doesn't sit well especially with
Teig. However, what makes the situation even worse: The house they're in
is actually haunted, haunted by the ghosts of mom and dad, and they're
adamant to battle out their final fight via their children as they have a
score to settle since dad has caused mom to miscarry ... Well, let's
just say it doesn't end too happily for anyone. House of Bad
is a pretty impressive piece of low budget genre cinema, mainly because of
a clever build-up that always gives away just enough of the story to spark
interest, because of entirely believably and interesting characters,
because it makes the most of its very limited sets (most of the film
actually takes place inside the house), and because it never tries to
gloss over things with flashy camerawork or fancy special effects, instead
builds the story on old-fashioned tension and suspense - that comes to a
head in the movie's breathtaking finale. Add to this a competent cast, who
all also look their roles, and you've got a pretty good movie. Recommended,
actually?
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