Horror genre fans are a fickle bunch: They love exercising their right to complain about what seems like most movies, big and small. Yet despite their chagrin, they come back over and over again, and at a per capita headcount few other genres can muster.
I tire easily of major studio slickness in my horror, and love instead the well-made indie horror film that plays off classic themes and does it with some soul and some flair. First House On The Hill fits exactly that descriptor. It's a film directly reflective of its name and its poster art, so there's no spoiler alert here, horror fans: It's about a house on the hill -- specifically the First House On The Hill -- and the events that happen there after a small group checks in for a stay.
I find it ambitious when a filmmaker takes a story that's been leveraged before in classic films, and has the stones to try to bend it to make it his or her own. That's what director and screenwriter Matteo Saradini attempts, and my own personal aesthetic allows me to say, unequivocally, that he succeeds inaccomplishing exactly that. The First House on the Hill delivers the spooks, and then some. Horror fans, prepare to rejoice.
I tire easily of major studio slickness in my horror, and love instead the well-made indie horror film that plays off classic themes and does it with some soul and some flair. First House On The Hill fits exactly that descriptor. It's a film directly reflective of its name and its poster art, so there's no spoiler alert here, horror fans: It's about a house on the hill -- specifically the First House On The Hill -- and the events that happen there after a small group checks in for a stay.
I find it ambitious when a filmmaker takes a story that's been leveraged before in classic films, and has the stones to try to bend it to make it his or her own. That's what director and screenwriter Matteo Saradini attempts, and my own personal aesthetic allows me to say, unequivocally, that he succeeds inaccomplishing exactly that. The First House on the Hill delivers the spooks, and then some. Horror fans, prepare to rejoice.