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The House that Jack Built
USA 2009
produced by Tony Oppedisano, Michael Guarnera, Bruce Reisman, Kris Black for FourTwoFive Films, Winbrook Entertainment
directed by Bruce Reisman
starring Kris Black, Hal Sparks, Michael Guarnera, Chantelle Barry, Justin Whalin, Shar Jackson, Justin Shilton, Carissa Kosta, Gail O'Grady, Peter Onorati, Joe Mantegna, Destiny Lightsy, Monica Allgeier, Lynette Rathnam, Sam Sarpong, Jessica Anderson, Cameron Barsanti, Arielle Brachfeld, Ashlee Curtis, Elana Fargquarson, Steve Filice, Micaela Gruber, Suzanne Happ, Joshua Lee, Lisa Mellem, Matthew Reis, Met Salih, Kristina Zapata, Amy Lyndon, Gene Galassini, Jimmy Lange
written by Kris Black, Bruce Reisman, music by Jeffrey Kite, special makeup effects by Jason Barnett/Industrial Monsters & Props
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Jack (Kris Black) is a Hollywood producer with way too much money and
way too many false friends. And he owns a house that was built by his
grandpa (Peter Onorati) and pretty much left unchanged since then. On his
deathbed, Jack's father (Joe Mantegna) made Jack vow to leave the house
unchanged because grandpa wanted it that way ... but Jack has a recurring
nightmare of grandpa killing his mother (Gail O'Grady), so his intentions
to do his gramps a favour are pretty limited - and thus he has the whole
house torn down and built a new one from scratch. Jack has a big
housewarming party with all his true and false friends, and one after the
other, his friends are killed - though nobody seems to notice it. Finally,
the few survivors find the dead bodies that are already piling up and have
to realize it's a fight for life and death, and finally the killer reveals
himself to Jack, and it's ... grandpa's ghost. But then the ghosts of Jack's
mom and dad show up to save him, and they push grandpa's ghost off a
balcony to his death ... and before you ask, let me assure you, I have no
idea how a ghost can be killed by a fall from the balcony. Despite
the ghost story premise, this film pretty much follows your typical
slasher formula - clueless people getting killed. And it's not even a good
slasher - main problem is, the characters are all just empty shells. True,
much time is wasted with them talking to each other, but they just have
nothing to say, and at best they come across as caricatures. Plus, the
cocktail party premise makes the film just that - a cocktail party full of
meaningless chitter-chatter - rather than anything resembling a suspense
piece. In fact, for the most time, the murders seem to have been thrown
into the mix rather at random, and the fact that nobody seems to even
notice that people are killed constantly and bloodily in this one doesn't
only seem odd, it doesn't help either. And as for the finale (when our
heroes finally realize they are up against something): couldn't the
filmmakers come up with anything better to fight ghosts than a fistfight?
A fistfight that ends with one ghost falling off a balcony? I mean, this
is really too much ...
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Thanks for watching !!!
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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