Director: Patrick Brice

Story By: Henry Gayden

Cast: Sydney Park, Théodore Pellerin, Asjha Cooper, Dale Whibley, Jesse LaTourette, Burkely Duffield, Diego Josef, Zane Clifford, & William Edward 

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Phew Chile… I haven’t seen such a bad thriller/slasher since #Countdown. Netflix could’ve kept this in a vault somewhere. 

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Below are my grades for key components in #TheresSomeoneInsideYourHouse that I find to be key in any story/film/series—Theme, Plot, Pacing, and Character Arc/Development. 

Additionally, I have added an entertainment factor scale to help you determine whether or not the film is something you’d be interested in taking time out of your weekend, evening, or day to watch. The scale range consists of: Worth the Watch/$$$, Interesting Enough (if looking for something new to start), Wait for Streaming, Don’t Rush, & Don’t Watch.

I have also added a few non-spoiling thoughts, wonderings, and comments as I watched the film to help give some rationale for my grades and entertainment scale.

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Theme: A

Plot & Story: C

Pacing: D

Character Arc/Development: D

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Entertainment Factors

General Public: Don’t Watch

Slasher Fans: Don’t Watch

Death Scenes Enthusiasts: Interesting Enough

Film Enthusiasts: Don’t Watch

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TAKEAWAYS:

1. For such a bad slasher, the messaging was actually pretty clear—some secrets people keep can potentially cause them harm. 

Act one opens the film up perfectly with this message, and the rest of the story continues to ride the idea of the message quite firmly, albeit without any cohesion, but followed through nonetheless. Additionally, the character Makani keeps this theme strong.👍🏾👍🏾

2. I had a moment at the house party where I was like, “Oh, this is obvious…” because I couldn’t help but think about the scene from Scream with Matthew Lillard—“I’ll be right back…”🙄

3. So there were 2 characters who technically had “an arc/development” and then a possible…

The character Makani had some development, but it was poorly executed. It seemed as if her character development was really to try and add suspense and mystery to the killer. However, overtime we learn her secret that is supposed to also explain…her…?? ??🥴🤦🏾‍♂️

The character Ollie is given an arc that seemed to have more effort placed upon it possibly due to the purpose of his character with the overall suspense and mystery. Pacing gets in the way of his arc being executed well. 🤦🏾‍♂️

The possible is the character Zach. The film gives bits and pieces to his overall development, but nothing to soundly justify it. His “character” just comes out of nowhere. 🤦🏾‍♂️

4. No lie… those were some good art skills with creating all those masks. 👍🏾👍🏾

5. Pacing was definitely the killer of this film. When the film starts, I actually appreciated the pacing—the film wastes no time with getting the first slashing on screen, and setting up the premise. 

Then the film just starts to rush. It rushes with the killings. Rushes with trying to make all the storylines make sense with the killings. Rushes to the point of actually not even sticking to the title of the film. It just moves extremely fast for the sake of “slashing” vs “logic and cohesion.” 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️👎🏾

6. Now the secret that caused the killing at the party was so lame in comparison to everyone else’s secret. 👎🏾

7. The premise for the party was actually pretty dope! I would love to throw or attend something like that (with a more discreet, yet interesting structure). 🤔🤔

8. Now how did someone take your taser? 🤨

9. What in the HELL was that bonfire with friends staring at the moonlight scene? Like, really? 👀🤦🏾‍♂️😂👎🏾

10. The story is about a killer targeting high school students who all have “dark secrets.” As mentioned with the messaging, Act One opens up strong with this premise. Right after the killing, through the lapse of student theories and gossip-investigation, there was this exciting possibility that the film was actually (and maybe even uncomfortably) going to use “identity” as a premise to the secrets and slashing. I was ready to see this could look like. 

But then the film quickly abandons what I thought would be a creative and interesting direction to a slasher, and just gives all these random ass secrets to characters who I wasn’t even invested in enough to care about, in order to focus on—what I believe—“creative” killing scenes. Furthermore, out of all the killings, only 2 actually happened “in a house” with one not even being “in their house.” 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️👎🏾

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Overall #ThereSomeoneInsideYourHouse gives Jawbreaker meets- 13 Reasons Why meets- Scream. 

Now don’t get me wrong, the idea of those films meshed together sounds interesting, but I personally found the writing to be quite lazy, and lacking social etiquette risk. There was a killer without any justified purpose, and killings that quickly veered from the title and intrigue. All the secrets after the first were stupid, outdated, &/or forced to be something more than it was just so viewers can see gore… that’s not enough for me.