House (2008 film)
Encyclopedia
House is a 2008
Polish
/United States
horror film
, directed by Robby Henson
, starring Reynaldo Rosales
, Heidi Dippold and Michael Madsen
. It is based on the novel of the same name by Frank E. Peretti
and Ted Dekker
. It covers the events that take place one night in an old, rustic inn in Alabama
, where four guests and three owners find themselves locked in by a homicidical maniac. The maniac claims to have killed God
and threatens to murder all seven of them, unless they produce the dead body of one of them by dawn.
After getting bad directions from a state trooper, the couple get into a car accident when they run over some spiked metal in the road, which Jack dismisses as discarded scrap metal; they find another car which has experienced the same fate, but the occupants are missing. Forced to proceed on foot, Jack and Stephanie find the gothic Wayside Inn, where they try to phone for help. At the inn, they meet the occupants of the other car, the engaged couple Leslie and Randy. Because the phones are inoperative, both couples are forced to spend the night at the inn, which is staffed only by the eccentric proprieter Betty, her creepy son Pete (who develops an instant attraction for Leslie), and the gruff caretaker Stewart.
After a tense dinner, in which personalities clash, the group is terrorized by a legendary local figure, the Tin Man. Armed with a shotgun, the Tin Man attempts to get into the Wayside Inn. The staff locks the Tin Man out, and he responds by giving them a message scrawled on the side of a tin can. The message declares that he will kill everyone in the house unless they give him one dead body by sunrise. The staff, blaming their guests for attracting the Tin Man's attention, attempts to lock them in the freezing meat locker, threatening to leave them there for weeks. A fight ensues, and the guests realize that there is a supernatural presence in the house when Betty is injured in the struggle and bleeds black fog.
The couples escape the meat locker, but are unable to leave the house, which assaults them with terrifying visions involving their worst memories. For Jack and Stephanie, the visions involve their daughter, who died after falling through the ice in a skating accident. For Randy, the visions involve his abusive father. For Leslie, the visions involve an uncle named Pete, who sexually abused her when she was a little girl; these visions are intensified by the similar lusts of the Pete who lives at the Wayside Inn.
Confused by the visions, the four guests find themselves separated. Jack meets Susan, a young girl who has been held captive by the staff. Susan reminds Jack of his deceased daughter, especially after she claims to have been in contact with her spirit; Susan assures Jack, and later Stephanie, that their daughter is in a good place.
Emotionally tormented by the visions, stalked by the homicidal Wayside staff, and under constant threat from the Tin Man, all four guests succumb to the various pressures and start to turn on each other. Shortly after, they discover that the staff worships the Devil, Jack is split into two identical people; both seem to think of themselves as the "real" Jack, yet both bleed black mist when injured, making it impossible for anyone to figure out which is the real Jack and which is the doppelganger
.
These couples almost escape when they are aided by Officer Lawdale (the same state trooper, who had given bad directions to Jack and Stephanie), but they are recaptured when Lawdale turns out to be working with the Wayside staff. Lawdale and the Wayside staff try to force the couples to appease the Tin Man by choosing one of themselves to kill. Past tensions initially lead the viewer to believe that Randy will resolve the situation by killing Jack, but he instead turns the gun on Susan. Jack deflects the gun but Susan is hit. Desperate to appease the Tin Man, Leslie and Randy kill each other.
Lawdale reveals that he is the Tin Man, and that he and the Wayside staffers are all manifestations of pure evil. Jack and Stephanie defeat their captors by channeling the energy of pure good that is flowing from Susan's dead body.
Finally able to escape the inn, Jack and Stephanie trek back to their car, where they discover their unconscious bodies, as well as the dead bodies of Leslie and Randy; they realize that their entire experience at the inn was nothing more than a shared out of body experience. As Jack and Stephanie wake up and are taken away in an ambulance, they are watched over by a resurected Susan, who observes that their love for each other has been reawakened by the events at the Wayside Inn. As the couple ride off in an ambulance, Jack looks out the window to see Lawdale laughing at him from the front gate of the Wayside, with the caretakers watching out of an upstairs window.
purchased this film, as well as the production for Ted Dekker's novel, Adam
.
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
Polish
Cinema of Poland
The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as history of cinematography, and it has universal achievements, even though Polish movies tend to be less commercially available than movies from several other European nations....
/United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, directed by Robby Henson
Robby Henson
-Biography:Robby Henson began his directing career at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Henson is now a skilled film and documentary maker. He writes and directs all his films, which are known for being character-driven. His work has attracted such acclaimed actors Billy Bob...
, starring Reynaldo Rosales
Reynaldo Rosales
Reynaldo Raul Rosales is an American actor.-Filmography:* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV series - Justin Green* Charmed TV series - Finn* Fidel TV movie - Guillermo Garcia...
, Heidi Dippold and Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen
Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
. It is based on the novel of the same name by Frank E. Peretti
Frank E. Peretti
Frank Edward Peretti is a New York Times best-selling author of Christian fiction, whose novels primarily focus on the supernatural. To date, his works have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Peretti is best known for his novels This Present Darkness and The Oath...
and Ted Dekker
Ted Dekker
Ted Dekker is a New York Times best-selling Christian author best known for mystery and thriller novels, though he has also made a name for himself among fantasy fans. Early in his career he wrote a number of books that would best be categorized as Religious thrillers...
. It covers the events that take place one night in an old, rustic inn in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, where four guests and three owners find themselves locked in by a homicidical maniac. The maniac claims to have killed God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and threatens to murder all seven of them, unless they produce the dead body of one of them by dawn.
Plot
In the prologue, the film depicts a panicky man who, for unknown reasons, murders his wife with a shotgun. The main storyline opens with Jack and Stephanie, a bickering young couple, who are lost while driving through the backwoods. We soon learn that they are on their way to meet a marriage counselor.After getting bad directions from a state trooper, the couple get into a car accident when they run over some spiked metal in the road, which Jack dismisses as discarded scrap metal; they find another car which has experienced the same fate, but the occupants are missing. Forced to proceed on foot, Jack and Stephanie find the gothic Wayside Inn, where they try to phone for help. At the inn, they meet the occupants of the other car, the engaged couple Leslie and Randy. Because the phones are inoperative, both couples are forced to spend the night at the inn, which is staffed only by the eccentric proprieter Betty, her creepy son Pete (who develops an instant attraction for Leslie), and the gruff caretaker Stewart.
After a tense dinner, in which personalities clash, the group is terrorized by a legendary local figure, the Tin Man. Armed with a shotgun, the Tin Man attempts to get into the Wayside Inn. The staff locks the Tin Man out, and he responds by giving them a message scrawled on the side of a tin can. The message declares that he will kill everyone in the house unless they give him one dead body by sunrise. The staff, blaming their guests for attracting the Tin Man's attention, attempts to lock them in the freezing meat locker, threatening to leave them there for weeks. A fight ensues, and the guests realize that there is a supernatural presence in the house when Betty is injured in the struggle and bleeds black fog.
The couples escape the meat locker, but are unable to leave the house, which assaults them with terrifying visions involving their worst memories. For Jack and Stephanie, the visions involve their daughter, who died after falling through the ice in a skating accident. For Randy, the visions involve his abusive father. For Leslie, the visions involve an uncle named Pete, who sexually abused her when she was a little girl; these visions are intensified by the similar lusts of the Pete who lives at the Wayside Inn.
Confused by the visions, the four guests find themselves separated. Jack meets Susan, a young girl who has been held captive by the staff. Susan reminds Jack of his deceased daughter, especially after she claims to have been in contact with her spirit; Susan assures Jack, and later Stephanie, that their daughter is in a good place.
Emotionally tormented by the visions, stalked by the homicidal Wayside staff, and under constant threat from the Tin Man, all four guests succumb to the various pressures and start to turn on each other. Shortly after, they discover that the staff worships the Devil, Jack is split into two identical people; both seem to think of themselves as the "real" Jack, yet both bleed black mist when injured, making it impossible for anyone to figure out which is the real Jack and which is the doppelganger
Doppelgänger
In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
.
These couples almost escape when they are aided by Officer Lawdale (the same state trooper, who had given bad directions to Jack and Stephanie), but they are recaptured when Lawdale turns out to be working with the Wayside staff. Lawdale and the Wayside staff try to force the couples to appease the Tin Man by choosing one of themselves to kill. Past tensions initially lead the viewer to believe that Randy will resolve the situation by killing Jack, but he instead turns the gun on Susan. Jack deflects the gun but Susan is hit. Desperate to appease the Tin Man, Leslie and Randy kill each other.
Lawdale reveals that he is the Tin Man, and that he and the Wayside staffers are all manifestations of pure evil. Jack and Stephanie defeat their captors by channeling the energy of pure good that is flowing from Susan's dead body.
Finally able to escape the inn, Jack and Stephanie trek back to their car, where they discover their unconscious bodies, as well as the dead bodies of Leslie and Randy; they realize that their entire experience at the inn was nothing more than a shared out of body experience. As Jack and Stephanie wake up and are taken away in an ambulance, they are watched over by a resurected Susan, who observes that their love for each other has been reawakened by the events at the Wayside Inn. As the couple ride off in an ambulance, Jack looks out the window to see Lawdale laughing at him from the front gate of the Wayside, with the caretakers watching out of an upstairs window.
Cast
- Michael MadsenMichael MadsenMichael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
as Tin Man / Fake Officer Lawdale - Reynaldo RosalesReynaldo RosalesReynaldo Raul Rosales is an American actor.-Filmography:* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV series - Justin Green* Charmed TV series - Finn* Fidel TV movie - Guillermo Garcia...
as Jack Singleton - Heidi Dippold as Stephanie Singleton
- Julie Ann EmeryJulie Ann EmeryJulie Ann Emery, born and raised in Crossville, Tennessee, is a theatre, television and film actress. She attended Webster Conservatory in St. Louis, Missouri, where she studied acting. She began her career at the age of 16 on the theatrical stage and has appeared in several productions, such as A...
as Leslie Taylor - J.P. Davis as Randy Messarue
- Lew TempleLew TempleLew Temple is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Locus Fender in the action film, Domino starring Keira Knightley, and Cal, the diner manager in the comedy-drama Waitress starring Keri Russell....
as Pete - Leslie EasterbrookLeslie Easterbrook-Early life:Easterbrook was born in Los Angeles and adopted by a family in rural Nebraska, where she was raised. Her father later earned a Ph.D and became a voice/trumpet professor at University of Nebraska at Kearney...
as Betty - Bill MoseleyBill MoseleyWilliam "Bill" Moseley is an American film actor and musician who has starred in a number of cult classic horror films, including House of 1000 Corpses, Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Devil's Rejects. His first big role was in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 as Chop Top...
as Stewart - Paweł Deląg as Officer Lawdale
- Weronika Rosati as Mrs. Lawdale
- Allana Bale as Susan
- Florentyna Synowiecka as Melissa Singleton
- Lance HenriksenLance HenriksenLance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
as Tin Man (voice)
Release
The film's release date was pushed back to Fall 2008. It has received a rating of R for some violence and terror. The film was released to theaters on November 7, 2008, and to DVD on April 7, 2009. Lions Gate EntertainmentLions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
purchased this film, as well as the production for Ted Dekker's novel, Adam
Adam (2008 novel)
Adam, a novel by renowned author Ted Dekker, was released on April 1, 2008. This book is not directly tied to any others, as many of Dekker's novels are.-Christian Retail Version:...
.