House Hunting
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''House Hunting'' (also released as ''The Wrong House'') is a 2012
psychological horror Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subge ...
- thriller film that was written and directed by Eric Hurt. The film had its world release on October 2, 2012 at the
Virginia Film Festival The Virginia Film Festival is a film festival hosted by the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The festival is held annually, usually in late October or early November. History Cr ...
, and received a DVD and VOD release through
Phase 4 Films Phase 4 Films was a Canadian film distribution company based in Toronto. It had two branches in the United States: Los Angeles, California and Fort Mill, South Carolina. Its subsidiary kaboom! Entertainment markets children's entertainment. Hist ...
on March 5, 2013. The film stars Marc Singer and Art LaFleur and follows two families that are trapped within a deserted farmhouse.


Plot

Charlie Hays, his daughter Emmy, and his second wife Susan follow a lead on a foreclosed house Charlie wants to buy. It's a seemingly perfect and beautiful home on 70 acres of private land. He also wants to use this as an opportunity for Emmy and Susan to get along, as neither likes the other. Meanwhile, another family – Don Thomson, his wife Leslie, and their live-in son Jason, who has suffered a broken leg in a car accident – meets a man in a red hat who gives Don an advertisement for the same house the Hayses are interested in. Finding it too good to be true, they too make the trip out to the house. Once both families arrive, they find the house abandoned. Charlie and his family go to the road to retrieve the realtor's phone number and, on the way back, nearly strike a distraught girl named Hanna running across the road. She is severely traumatized, and her tongue has been cut out. The families decide to take her to the hospital, but to their shock find themselves coming back to the house again and again. Don refuses to give up, but by nightfall, after passing the house 23 times, his car runs out of gas. They decide to stay in the house, despite Hanna's pleading not to enter. Once inside, they find firewood and cans of stew that account for each one of them: seven cans for seven people. Despite the arguments that ensue between Leslie and Susan, the families decide to stay and wait for help. They remain for one month, while recordings on the house tell them that only one family will claim the house. Cabin fever and close quarters have everyone on edge until Susan spurns a cheerful Leslie for being too happy. As the tension mounts, the house inexplicably begins providing only six cans. Leslie starts seeing hallucinations of her daughter Lizzy, who had previously died, and kills herself. After this, Susan learns that the house had been foreclosed on by Charlie himself, and Emmy begins seeing visions of a man who had killed his son. Soon after, Charlie and Emmy begin seeing visions of her mother, appearing before them with her throat slashed. Charlie confides in Emmy that her mother had left them long ago, but Susan seems to know more. Following clues by the mute girl Hanna and a jigsaw puzzle, Emmy nearly makes it back to the road by walking backwards, but she is interrupted by Jason, who tries to rape her. Hanna strikes him with a log, and he impales himself on a branch; Don, who is becoming increasingly paranoid, rescues him, but Jason begins to suffer shock from blood loss. After being terrified by a vision, Jason admits to his father that he hit a jogging woman with his car, rather than a deer. It is revealed that she was an occupant of the house. Don leaves the Hayses bound and attempts to leave the property on his own. When he returns that night, he admits he reached the road and starts to free them, but Susan, fearing him, attacks and kills him with an axe. Afterward, the house stops providing food for them, and Charlie becomes erratic. At the house, the ghost of the woman Jason killed attacks him and chokes him to death. Charlie snaps after a vision of himself convinces him that Susan has told Emmy about his part in her mother's murder - in fact Susan has told Emmy that it was a suicide. Suspecting Susan of stealing their food, he beats her to death with a stew can. Emmy and Hanna flee with him in pursuit, convinced that killing Hanna will allow them to leave. Charlie kills Hanna, but he is in turn shot by Emmy. Finally making it to the road, Emmy comes across another family. They bring her into the car and drive back to the house. Emmy realises there are two families there to see the house, and panics, but as they are distracted by the ghosts, she is pulled aside and her tongue cut out by the Realtor with a pair of scissors, and the cycle begins anew.


Cast

* Paul McGill as Jason Thomson *
Marc Singer Marc Singer (born January 29, 1948) is a Canadian-born American actor best known for his roles in the '' Beastmaster'' film series, as Mike Donovan in the original 1980s TV series '' V'', and as Matt Cantrell in ''Dallas''. Early life Singer wa ...
as Charlie Hays *
Art LaFleur Art LaFleur (September 9, 1943 – November 17, 2021) was an American character actor and acting coach. Life and career LaFleur was born in Gary, Indiana. He played football in 1962 as a redshirt at the University of Kentucky under Coach Charl ...
as Don Thomson * Hayley DuMond as Susan Hays * Janey Gioiosa as Emmy Hays * Rebekah Kennedy as Hanna * Victoria Vance as Leslie Thomson * Jon Cobb as the Realtor *
Emma Rayne Lyle Emma Rayne Lyle (born August 26, 2003) is an American actress best known for her role as Emily Reddy in the feature film ''I Don't Know How She Does It'' (2011), which earned her the Young Artist Award as 33rd Young Artist Awards#Best Performanc ...
as Lizzy Thomson


Production

Filming took place in Charlottesville, Virginia over a 22-day period. Producer Erica Arvold became involved with the production and casting of the film after reading the first 30 pages of Hurt's script for ''House Hunting''. Actress Janey Gioiosa was chosen to portray Emmy Hays, as she had previously performed in one of Hurt's earlier films and had impressed Hurt. Gioiosa sustained an injury during the filming of the movie, as she had burst a blood vessel in her eye during a scene that required she scream.


Reception

''
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 pro ...
'' named the movie one of their "best horror films on AICN HORROR since last Halloween", as they felt that it was "original and well made". '' Starburst'' gave the movie 7 out of 10 stars and remarked that while the movie was "definitely not perfect" and would not appeal to all tastes, it was also "well made, compelling and interesting." Matthew Lee of
Twitch Film Screen Anarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...
wrote, "You have to forgive a ''lot'' to want to buy into ''The Wrong House'', but it's still one of the best deals of 2012." In January 2013, Lee marked the film as one of his favorite films of 2012. In contrast, ''HorrorNews.net'' was more critical in their review and gave it a C+, praising the acting and directing while stating that the film's surrealism detracted from their viewing experience.


References


External links

* * * {{Rotten tomatoes, 771351967 2012 films 2012 horror films American independent films American psychological horror films American haunted house films Films produced by Pat Cassidy Films shot in Virginia 2010s English-language films 2010s American films