The Open House
One of the weirdest things ever. I had just watched a murder show (one of those killers on ID things) about this guy who researched houses for sale, went to them without an appointment and when he ran across one with a woman at home alone he'd use some story about passing through town, only had one day, was going to pay cash and weasel his way inside. He'd always try to pick rainy days so they'd be more likely to let him in. Then during the tour of the home, he'd murderize the owner and then leave. He was traveling four or five hundred miles from home to hunt and would have probably gone on for years, but in one of the houses where he killed a woman, she fell on the towel he'd used to dry off a little and he left it there.
Then I watched this movie, a Netflix original. It wasn't the same, but it sort of was.
Basic concept of the film? Mom and son grieving the accidental death of the dad are house-sitting at a home for sale. There are open houses. They don't end well.
The film featured Dylan Minette as the son and some woman named Piercy Dalton as the mom. Minette is a pretty good actor and did a decent enough job in his role. Dalton was in desperate need of some makeup -- even though the lack of it conveyed the grief and weariness of the mourning period -- and there was a completely unnecessary shot of her unremarkable showering butt. She didn't bring as much to the film as she could have.
It was a Netflix movie so it had its flaws. One of the things that frustrates me the most about movies is continuity and this one suffered badly from failures to maintain it. For instance it's pitch black when they run into their next door neighbor at a store. Moments later when they pull up to the door, it's at least two hours later (judging by the level of sunlight). This one had several other gaps like that, and there were quite a few rabbit holes that seemed to just be filler. Even the death of the dad seemed superfluous and irrelevant. Could have given a thousand reasons for them to be there without adding that weak emotional hook.
It took its time getting to the truth, dropping possible clues along the way. Then it left all those clues behind and offered a denouement that provided more questions than answers. In doing so it turned some of the behavorial clues into tattering rags, flapping in the breeze.
It wasn't bad, but failing to let the natural progression of learning about the house, neighborhood and residents bear the fruit it could/should have left me flat. It was a really strange turn of the usual 'things aren't as they seem' trope.
And it sort of gave me pause coming on the heels of watching a real-life murderer that exhibited some of the same characteristics.
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