''House on the Hill'' is a 2012

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by

Jeffrey Frentzen Jeffrey Scott Frentzen (born September 7, 1956), sometimes credited as Jeff Frentzen, is an American movie director, screenwriter, producer, novelist, journalist, and actor. Early life Frentzen was born in Oakland, California, and was raised i ...

and based on the real-life killing spree of serial killers

Leonard Lake Leonard Thomas Lake (October 29, 1945June 6, 1985), also known as Leonard Hill and a variety of other aliases, was an American serial killer. During the mid-1980s, he and his accomplice, British Hong Kong-born Charles Ng, raped, tortured and mu ...

and

Charles Ng Charles Chi-tat Ng (born Ng Chitat) ( zh, t=吳志達, j=ng4 zi3 daat6; born 24 December 1960) is a convicted Hong Kong-born serial killer who committed numerous crimes in the United States. He is believed to have raped, tortured, and murdered ...

. The film had its world premiere on May 11, 2012 at the Monaco Charity Film Festival and was released to DVD in the United Kingdom and United States in 2015. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, 7 minutes and 12 seconds were cut from the film by the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

in order to obtain an 18 rating.

Synopsis

Sonia (Naidra Dawn Thomson) is the only known survivor of the serial killer

. She's paired up with a private investigator in the hopes of finding a lost woman and during their exploration of Lake's compound, she tells the investigator about how she was tortured and forced to videotape the rape, torture, and murder of another woman.

Cast

*Naidra Dawn Thomson as Sonia *Shannon Leade as Karianna *Stephen A.F. Day as

*Sam Leung as

* * *Kevin McCloskey as Paul Kale *Laura Hofrichter as Sara (as Laura Leigh) *Brenna Catherine Briski as Leila *Crystal Nelson as Jennifer *Tya Adams as Sandra *Olivia Parrish as Julie *Rachael Devlin as Cat *Elissa Dowling as Mary

Reception

HorrorNews.net and

Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...

both panned the film, criticizing it for what they saw as poor plotting and acting.

Ain't It Cool News Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book proje ...

was more positive in their review, praising the performances of Day and Leung while overall stating "while the filmmakers had some disquieting inspiration to build a movie on, ''HOUSE ON THE HILL'' is just too low fi to be effective in any way."

References

External links

* * {{allrovi movie, 632591 2012 films 2012 horror films 2010s biographical films 2012 independent films American biographical films American horror films American independent films Biographical films about serial killers Horror films based on actual events Films about rape American serial killer films Crime films based on actual events Crime horror films Cultural depictions of serial killers Cultural depictions of rapists Cultural depictions of kidnappers Cultural depictions of American people Films scored by Robert J. Walsh Censored films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films