[FANTASIA 2018] ‘OUR HOUSE’ and ‘RONDO’ Mini-Reviews

OUR HOUSE

Why do people want to connect with the dead so much? In Our House, college student Ethan (Thomas Mann) has created some scientific breakthrough that works as an electronic Ouija board of sorts. That wasn’t the intention; it was a science project he was working on that got kicked to the side after Ethan and his two younger siblings Matt (Percy Hynes White) and Becca (Kate Moyer) lost their parents in a car accident. Once Ethan moves back home to tend for the kids and becomes more comfortable, he continues his work on the project that intends to create energy out of magnetic waves but actually connects with some paranormal friends, who they eventually end up believing is their parents. What they’re dealing with may be more than they’re aware of.

This is a movie that I’ve been looking forward to when it was once upon a time titled Breathing. At that time, the movie was being developed along with a score from Electric Youth, who fell off of the project after learning that the movie had changed fairly drastically in post-production. Their unused score is available for purchase (as Breathing), it’s incredible, and you should go listen to it. Maybe it had my expectations high based on that, or maybe it was director Anthony Scott Burns’ “Father’s Day” short from the anthology Holidays that had built the anticipation for his feature debut. But the expectations simply weren’t met. The main problem I had is that this film doesn’t build to something frightening. It’s Poltergeist without a good climax…and without any of those moments before the good climax. It’s boring, frankly. There isn’t a new thought or beat in the entirety, and I kept waiting for something to surprise me. I feel Burns is a visually talented guy, there’s some good lighting work, but the script was very underwhelming. This was a remake by Nathan Parker of 2010’s Ghost from the Machine, a movie I’m not familiar with, and based on this don’t plan to be. This didn’t do anything for me, but there seems to be some fans out there for this. So carry on and check it out for yourself. It’s not bad…just meh.

2/5 Stars

Good news! In addition to playing at Fantasia 2018, Our House is available right now on VOD platforms from IFC Midnight!

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RONDO

PTSD has stricken Boone (Grant Benjamin Leibowitz) after returning from a tour of duty, and his sister Jill (Brenna Otts) suggests meeting with a specialist doctor she met. This doctor is…unorthodox. A pregnant woman, Cassie explains and recommends sexual exploration and fetishes in order to help him free up his mind and blow off some steam. I know, that was my reaction as well. She provides him with an address and a password, “Rondo,” where he discovers that he’s about to partake in cuckholding a rich gentleman. Of the three recruited cuckholds, Boone is set to go last, and takes a walk out on the balcony. Through the window he witnesses the man before him mid-coitus being beaten to death by Lurdell (Reggie De Morton), the man who organized this ordeal. Boone escapes and can’t get his sister to believe his experience, thinking he’s just completely lost his mind. But she will learn that it was, in fact, real…that this “doctor” wasn’t real…that this was a setup…and as it turns out, Jill’s the wrong woman to cross.

Rondo feels like a student film with a moderate production budget. Occasionally writer/director Drew Barnhardt manages to ramp up some tension or get crazy with some camera movement and editing that lulls you into thinking the movie is going to get better. Raimi and Hitchcock elements occasionally pop up, and the story has a good concept. But it just doesn’t get better as things continue to be unexplained, and threads are left hanging all over the place. There appear to be chunks of the story missing to tie things together, and it feels extremely amateur as a result. The music choices are misguided, with the movie starting off with what sounds like the soundtrack to Pushing Daisies and soon segueing into sub-dubstep electronic stuff. It’s truly baffling. Performances are okay for what this is. Brenna Otts is gorgeous and has some good moments, but the movie just doesn’t flow correctly to develop her character so that I can buy into her transformation from worried sister to vengeance seeking femme fatale. The ending is notable for paying homage to Thriller: A Cruel Picture with a barrage of slow motion squibs erupting, and in this case even painting the camera. It’s pretty startling and eye opening, but I just couldn’t bother to care by that point. There’s a good, pulpy story here, it’s just not executed well.

1 OUT OF 5

No news on playing aside from the world premiere at Fantasia 2018.