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Released by Revolver Entertainment
Released on: February 10, 2015
Directed by: Michael Bartlett
Cast: Lindsey Haun, Blake Berris, RJ Mitte, Randy Schulman, Diane Dalton
Year: 2013
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The Movie:
When Sara (Diane Dalton) returns home from a stay in a mental hospital following a traumatic incident her husband, Alan (Randy Schulman) decides a trip to Italy may be good for her. Kelly (Lindsey Haun), a young woman who has a history with Alan, is hired to be their house sitter. While the couple is overseas, Kelly, along with her brother, Tim (RJ Mitte) and her boyfriend, Jesse (Blake Berris) moves into the house. Strange, unsettling occurrences happen to each group as we begin to learn the secret of what drove Sara into her current unstable mental condition. Along the way, Jesse further complicates matters by accidently bringing a lost little boy home with him. How is the boy linked to the house, what is his connection to Sara and Alan, and what is the deal with the all the golf clubs?
If there is anything to point out about House of Last Things it is to say, at least they tried something different. This maybe the highest amount of praise one can give the film and its writer/director, Michael Bartlett. House of Last Things is without a doubt a ghost/haunted house film and yet it is not at all scary, it was not even a horror film. The film did not go for scares instead it went for weirdness. In the place of typical ghostly images filling the characters with terror, they were bombarded with a swarm of floating yellow balloons; all the while golf balls and clubs magically flew through the air during the course of the film. Aiming for the weird and unusual is commendable, however a film needs more than that to be fully successful.
This is where House of Last Things falters. Beyond the overall strangeness of a golf ball that haunts a young girl and her friends, there just is not much else to the film. The film has a total of six major characters, the bulk of which do some of the dumbest, most illogical things imaginable. Forward movement of the plot is the only explanation for the characters' silly, poorly thought out choices. When Jesse brings the child home, instead of calling the authorities to explain what happened, he and Kelly decide to write a ransom note. The characters decide to fix an accident by turning it into a felony. If they had called the authorities the film would have been a lot shorter.
During the film, I kept wondering if the House of Last Things is supposed to be funny. There are moments in the film which were so inane and goofy I had to laugh out loud. To punctuate a scene of dramatic tension between characters, Bartlett has Tim inform Kelly they are out of toilet paper. I could not decide if this was a joke or completely sincere. The film's use of opera and classical music also contributed laughs. Scenes of soaring golf clubs became so overwrought and melodramatic, I felt it had to be parody.
At nearly two hours in length House of Last Things is far too long and it wore out its welcome with 30 minutes left in the running time. Despite the bloated length, the film is rather goofy fun. I had a good time for the first 90 or so minutes watching the characters overact and make dumb decisions. There were parts of the movie reminded me of far better films like Alain Robbe-Grillet's L'Immortelle and, oddly enough, Richard Lowenstein's Dogs in Space. These instances probably made me like the film more than I should.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Revolver Entertainment brings House of Last Things to DVD in an anamorphic 1.78:1 presentation. The image is strong and the cinematography has a nice cinematic quality. The DVD features two options for sound, a 2.0 Dolby stereo mix and a 5.1 surround mix. Neither of the options are great and dialogue often got lost in both mixes. Subtitles would have been nice. The DVD does not have any extras.
The Final Word:
House of Last Things is pretty dumb, but that is not a bad thing. While Bartlett did not completely succeed with his intentions it is nice he tried to be different.
