Treehouse

A teenage boy discovers the perpetrators of several brutal kidnappings in his home town.

This film was co-produced by Ed Sanchez (Blair Witch Project), which is just about the only name recognition it has. And even that is a bit of a stretch outside of serious horror fans.

Dave Alexander says the film has "some realistic, likable characters to root for, genuinely frightening and savage antagonists, some brutally effective kills and constant tension". Despite this glowing praise, Alexander goes on to call the movie "stupid" due in part to how it resolves its problems.

Without addressing the second part, one must concur with the first part. After twenty minutes or so of rather boring, pointless exposition, we get to the heart of the film. Very tense, very well shot, and a haunting score. This is not a great film, though it has so many great elements that it will be interesting to see what those involved do next -- and it is almost worth championing this film for that reason.

Treehouse starts well and the opening scene suggests this may be a small budget gem however any hope of this is quickly extinguished.

The premise is decent, young adults and children are being kidnapped and it all seems linked to a strange tree house. Unfortunately a very poor script never even gets close to tapping the films potential. There are plenty of superfluous scenes that add little or nothing to the story.

Treehouse changes direction at the drop of the hat as if the writer didn't quite know what he wanted the film to be, slasher, supernatural or gritty thriller. As a result we just get a jumbled mess of a film that is at times confusing and at times boring.

Although it's a pretty poor film, it's not a total write off as there are at least a couple of decent scenes and some of the filming is quite good.

I can't really recommend this film and am probably being a bit generous giving it a 5 but I have seen far worse films.

This is a remarkably effective low budget movie. A small Midwest, rural community has had several children disappearances and the authorities have no clue. That last two that went missing was a 12 year old girl and her 6 year old brother. Meanwhile two other brothers decide to shoot off illegal fireworks with 4 friends but far enough away from town that the local cops won't see. The brothers come across one of the missing and vie to help out. But that's easier said than done. The biggest weakness and cause for many of the lower reviews is the backstory/events that fuel rhe "kidnappers"." Leaving the motivation/causes out doesn't make the movie weaker- just makes the plot more horrific. The plot "holes" are well covered with inferential scenes, meaning that it keeps the audience more involved than typical horror movie. Few classic tropes, in fact, it's a pretty fresh film. The cinematic violence is mild compared to the horrendous violence inferred from scenes. Feels a bit like Deliverance but with more of a horror quality and innocence, except pretty much the whole cast are portrayed by minors. Character development is A quality. The acting:direction is variable, they keep in a few scenes where some of the supporting roles were way to stiff. But the two leads are good. It's got a bit of the coming of age feel to it. Definitely a 5 or better film most of the bad reviews can't review without spoilers- so, maybe the ending isn't expected and it has a sub quality feel to it.

I watched this movie before release and was anticipating some mystery and maybe even a bit of horror. There were no ratings or reviews so I watched it without knowing what to expect. All I got was a dragged out film that went nowhere... Judging by the poster you would think that this movie involved some seriously creepy and exciting plot.. But it was quite the opposite and frankly a waste of time. With a disappointing ending that didn't boost my thoughts of the movie. If you are looking for horror, certainly don't watch this movie. I suppose at most you could call it a Mystery. Overall highly disappointing and not a movie exciting or good enough to watch with a friend.

Just how do these awful films keep getting made? It's something that tends to happen a lot in the horror genre, though calling Treehouse a horror movie is a bit of stretch.

It's difficult to grasp just what the makers were going for since the film goes nowhere fast and quickly loses focus to the point that nothing much makes sense. It starts off promising enough, with a nice musical score and some nifty location photography work. Then it piles on the exposition, throws in some poor acting, all building towards a laughable finale that is most certainly not worth waiting for - and again the reveal doesn't make any sense given what had happened earlier in the piece.

Poor and best avoided unless you want to feel angry? 2/10