Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Open House Blu-ray Movie Review

The lack of suspense and legitimate chills makes for a barely passable snorefest.

Reviewed by Dustin Somner September 15, 2010

With the emergence of the slasher genre during the 1970’s, audiences grew accustomed to a certain formula that gradually became stale and contrived. This predicament fits within the mold of our Hollywood studio system that favors safe prospects over creative gambles, but the unfortunate downside of this near-sighted focus eventually sunk the genre in a state of decay. Leave it to Wes Craven to salvage what remained of a kingdom he helped build, by unleashing the Scream franchise on a new generation of teenage movie-goers. His newfound success led to a re-emergence of the slasher genre in the years that followed, with every major studio clamoring for the next available screenplay containing “killer” in the title. This naturally led to oversaturation of the market, ushering in a second round of decline among viewers who once gravitated toward such productions. The need for change was inevitable, opening the door for a new brand of slasher flick. The first to emerge in this subsection was an independent film titled Funny Games, following quickly by the 2008 shocker The Strangers. Continuing in the same vein (though hardly deserving of such comparisons) is the 2010 release Open House. Directed by Anna Paquin’s older brother Andrew, the film is a straight-to-video warning on the inherent dangers in becoming a real estate agent. Unfortunately for fans of the genre, I’m only halfway joking.

Not exactly a talkative crowd...

With the final details of her looming divorce still pending, Alice (Rachel Blanchard) asks her long-time friend Carl (Gabriel Olds) to serve as listing agent in the sale of her home. Soon after, while showing the house to promising young clients, Carl spies a mysterious man standing inside the back door of the house, but never manages to find him again once the interested couple leaves. Returning home that night, Alice prepares a dinner party for some friends (since she still occupies the house during its ongoing sale), settling in for an elegant night of wine and friendly banter. Unfortunately for Alice and her guests, the mysterious prowler from earlier never left the house and possesses an unhealthy addiction to murder. As his list of victims grows, Alice becomes a prisoner within her own home, shackled inside the basement by the knife-wielding sadist. Incorrectly assuming matters can’t get worse, a psychotic vixen joins the young man as the new residents of the house, leaving Alice with little chance of escape.

When you consider Open House was released straight to home video, there’s little reason to assume this will emerge as a game-changing entry in the genre. As such, many will assume there’s not much value in this directorial debut by Andrew Paquin, and either pass on the film completely or enter the experience with dismal expectations. Either way, my assessment won’t do much to dissuade such opinions, since I found the entire affair barely passable by B-grade standards.

Surprisingly, the problems with Open House don’t begin with the acting or production values (which are actually quite good). Rather, the overriding factor holding this back from achieving the entertainment value of The Strangers and Funny Games is a lack of suspense or interesting characters. Most kill scenes occur off camera or lack the intensity of a drawn out death, leaving little reason to dwell on such tame scenarios. Additionally, the characters who meet their demise are often one-dimensional caricatures of yuppie suburbanites who are introduced for the sole purpose of boosting the body count. I’m a firm believer in the power of strong victims the audience can connect with (typically a staple in films of this sort), so despite the inclusion of Alice within the formula it was disappointing to find a series of placeholder characters inhabiting the film.

Despite the overwhelming weakness of the characters and plot, Open House could be a lot worse. Beginning with the acting, I was surprised by proficiency of the main cast, which contains a smattering of recognizable television talent. If you happen to glance at the cover art adorning the Blu-ray case, you’ll notice Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer prominently displayed, implying at least equal billing with Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) and the beautiful Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica). Sadly, fans of True Blood will be disappointed to discover both actors are merely fringe players in the production, appearing for less than five minutes of actual screen time. Aside from this unfortunate marketing ploy, the primary players in Open House deliver strong performances that transcend the customary effort on a straight-to-video production, almost rectifying some of the core problems in the actual characters they portray. Likewise, Andrew Paquin shows sufficient strength as a first-time director, delivering an end result that appears better than expected given the budgetary limitations. He still has work to do as a writer, and should pay a bit more attention to the staging of suspenseful sequences, but he still demonstrates enough promise to be considered a future contender within the genre.

Open House Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in 1080p utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 23Mbps), Open House offers a stunningly clear visual experience, despite several odd choices in the cinematography. The decisions I'm referring to can be attributed largely to the muted color scheme used throughout, which filters out bold hues in favor of a sterile palette. This shouldn't emerge as a large knock against the visual presentation since it was likely present in the original source material, but anyone hoping for a vivid Blu-ray presentation is bound to leave with a lack of enthusiasm. Thankfully, the issue never wreaks havoc on the depth of black levels or contrast, which rarely reveals the slightest hint of weakness in the creation of shade differentiation. As a result, the image retains an overall sense of dimensionality that separates objects in the foreground from the background, lending a dramatic sense of depth that's often absent from low budget features of this sort. Continuing with the positives, I never detected the presence of edge enhancement, artifacting, or aliasing, and there's no suggestion of manipulation in the form of digital noise reduction meant to reduce the presence of film grain.

Despite questionable decisions regarding the color scheme of the production, Open House emerges as an above average presentation that transcends its low budget roots.

Open House Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A good slasher film depends on two carefully placed elements to generate the thrills and chills fans adore. First, you need a heavy dose of blood-curdling screams to occasionally break the suspenseful silence, sending chills down the spine of viewers. Second, you require competent management of various cues meant to lull the audience into a disarming sense of safety, before pulling the rug from beneath them. In the case of Open House, both elements are delivered with sufficient precision, but neither stood out as a saving grace in the ultimate success of the film. Blame it on the absence of dialog or the lack of interesting death sequences (which never deliver more than typical stabbing sounds), but I found the audio experience nearly as sterile as the film itself. That's not to say there's anything inherently flawed in the mix, but aside from the typical strengths found in the upgrade to Blu-ray (clarity, volume balance, richness), there's simply not much worth praising. Surround separation and spatial depth often fall in the average category, subwoofer activity is almost non-existent, and sound effects seem to exist merely as an afterthought. All of these problems can be traced back to the actual sound design of the film itself (and should not be blamed on the audio engineers at Lionsgate), yet they still reflect a portion of the film's overall value, and must be considered when contemplating whether or not this Blu-ray release is worth your time.

Open House Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Feature Length Audio Commentary: Starring Director Andrew Paquin and Actor Brian Geraghty, this meandering commentary offers little in the way of intriguing revelations, and merely confirms my suspicions regarding the lack of substance in the underlying story. Unless you're forced to watch the film for a second time, don't worry about wasting your time on this track.

Deleted Scenes (1080p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 9:45 min): For those with further interest in exploring the mind-numbing plot of the film, there are three deleted scenes to wade through.

Rounding out the extras, we have a standard definition trailer for Open House, as well as a collection of standard definition trailers for other Lionsgate films.

Open House Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you enjoy films such as The Strangers, Funny Games, or Vacancy, there's a good chance Open House will cross your radar at some point. Unfortunately, comparisons to these superior productions are largely unwarranted, since the level of suspense found in Andrew Paquin's directorial debut never came close to other films in the same vein. As such, genre fans should stick with a rental rather than a purchase, knowing there's little reason to revisit the film in the future.