Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Woodyanders A young couple check out a new house that turns out to have a dark and violent history. First story - A dysfunctional family holes up in the basement during a fierce storm. Gorgeously shot in black and white, this one has a frighteningly unstable mom from hell and a strong brooding atmosphere. Second yarn - Vicious serial killer John Doesy (robustly played with lip-smacking warped relish by Jonathan Tiersten) keeps his victims locked up in cages in the cellar. Tiersten's energetic acting as a blithe psycho who loves to torment his prey gives this segment an extra jarring sting. Third tale - A sick and sadistic stranger (a positively terrifying portrayal by Dustin Stevens) puts a family through a grueling and harrowing ordeal. Arguably the most brutal and upsetting segment of the bunch, this one delivers an especially savage kick to the gut mainly because of the startling way that it places kids in substantial jeopardy. Moreover, Felissa Rose of "Sleepaway Camp" fame impresses as the hapless mother.Directors Kris Hulbert and Randy Kent maintain a zippy pace throughout, keep the tone appropriately harsh and grim tone from start to finish, deliver oodles of hideously graphic gore, and further spruce things up with touches of wickedly amusing pitch-black humor. Moreover, it's Hulbert and Kent's bold willingness to push the limits of what's considered tasteful and acceptable which in turn provides an additional unsettling edginess; this is no-holds-barred horror that means serious ferocious business and goes right for the throat sans restraint or apology. The fact that everything shown in the movie is within the realm of horrific possibility rates as another significant scary and unnerving asset. Monique Parent's sizzling presence as a sexy real estate agent ensures that the wraparound segment totally hums. Kudos are also in order for Tal Lazar's sharp widescreen cinematography and Frederik Wiedmann's ominous bone-rattling score. A nice'n'nasty item.

bob_meg "I'd go so far as to call The Perfect House one of the most pointless, soulless, ugly, and disgusting horror films of the past ten years...and that's precisely what these filmmakers are after." - Scott Weinberg, FEARnet Mr. Weinberg's comments are so dead-on, I just had to repeat them. I wished I'd read his review before I wasted $5 on this sub-amateurish torture-porn farce that's really only tolerable when it's making fun of itself, which unfortunately isn't often enough.The Perfect House is something like a car wreck: a film so poorly acted, so abominably shot and edited that most times you simply can't believe what you're seeing. It's hard to look away from because you can't imagine any filmmaker would expect this tripe to be taken seriously. And that's just the technical aspect.This is a cobbled-together home-made POS with not one shred of redeeming value as a horror film (or any film). These "filmmakers" are not movie lovers. It's doubtful whether they've even seen a movie or maybe are just incompetent at operating the $200 software package they obviously used to edit with (after they recorded it on their five-year-old Handycam). No, these people are hucksters pure and simple. They know they're pulling one over on you and worse, they want you to know it. Either that, or they are dumber than they obviously assume that you are.Here's a quick run-down of the film's "plot": It's an Anthology film (of course...since all the 'plots' are ludicrously flimsy and clichéd, unable to sustain a full length film certainly) about an "evil" house that drives ordinary people to commit murderous acts (weak attempts at the type of black humor horror done quite well in EC Comics stuff like "Creepshow"). Almost all the segments feature ridiculously hollow, hammy villains who mete out particularly vile tortures for no reason...to many children, no less. I guess they couldn't get away with torturing animals, thank god. There are few good "effects" --- most of the violence is done in cutaway or is blurred or sped-up to mask the VFX guys incompetence or the lack of budget. Speaking of budget, what ghetto did they film this supposed "dream house" in?Yes, TPH is gory, gross, and nauseating. Some of the best horror films are. What they are not, is puerile, shoddily made, and insulting. Sam Raimi's Evil Dead, this is not. It's not even fourth-rate swill like "Don't Look in the Basement" or a camp horror film that's a pleasure because it is so bad (the "Sleepaway Camp" films featuring Felissa Rose, who does scream well here). These guys might be able to daydream about being that good one day, but they'll probably just wind up watching these other films on cable.Just because a film has no money doesn't mean it has to suck. But that requires technique, good camera set-ups, and actors who actually are capable of and want to do a decent job. Oh yes, and a script whose lines aren't complete recycled garbage from bad '60s drive-in fare and actually reflect how people speak, with hints to their characters' motivations and back stories and....What's the point? If you agree that those things are important, run as fast as you can from this film. It is a dangerous piece of "art" --- simply because making it a success will no doubt egg on other charlatans to follow the money trail with yet another poorly made con job.

rushknight Most directors have a goal in mind when they make their movie, and if the movie does what it should in terms of entertainment, then we call that movie a success.Unfortunately for this film, the director makes the mistake of trying to disturb you and terrify you with graphic scenes of torture and gore.Ho hum. It's been done before, and many times even better than this.Disturbing the viewer is a good goal in a horror flick. But extended scenes about torture and gore bore-me-half-to-death. When I can flip forward through entire scenes and be like, "Ok, so long story short, she dies this way, he dies that way, killer does this, killer does that.." and get the entire story without actually needing to watch it, then we have a very shallow idea on the screen indeed. I can literally skip entire scenes and miss nothing, and the rest of the movie still makes perfect sense. In other words, there is no point to this movie except extended scenes of suffering and gore. You may skip them or watch them at your discretion, but why bother watching them when they really add nothing? It's really just more gratuitous than effective, and if you are the sort of person who actually enjoys watching it then I suggest you get your head checked.

moviewizman I must admit that when I went into the screening of The Perfect House I didn't know what to expect but after watching I have to say that it was a great horror movie and a sick and twisted one at that filled with all the gore to satisfy even the hardest of core horror movie fans.What we get here is three different stories all revolving around the same house and more so the basement. Bad things are on tap for sure. Things start off with a young couple (Will Robertson, Andrea Vahl) thinking they are about to find their Perfect House. They are showed the house by a sexy but sadistically seeming Realtor(Monique Parent).We are now taken to a black and white segment which is a tribute to Hitchcock and tells us of the first thing to happen in the house when a family is trapped in the basement during a bad storm and this terrifying mother(Kris Smith) who torments them all. Most of the violence is off screen in this one but there is still some good teases including a decapitation.Our second story and my favorite of all of them is about a psychotic madman who keeps his victims in cages in the basement. Keeping one girl to watch as his body count piles up. Jonathan Tiersten (Sleepaway Camp) and Holly Greene(The Cutting Room) play off each other to make this an instant classic. Top notch acting for both of them and that's not to take away from the male cage victim(Hans Hernke) who does a great job also. This section of the movie has some of the best gore I've seen in years in a movie and really shows how psychotic a person can get and with the smart writing by Kris Hulbert you never doubt for a second that are you are watching one of the sickest people ever.Our third story is the story we get a tease of in the opening of the film. It's about a neighbor who takes not getting his weed trimmer back way too far. This segment has some moral gray areas in it for sure but they are all still enjoyable and more blood for all you horror fans like myself. You get a family tied up in the basement by a sadistic stranger(Dustin Stevens) who is angry cause he didn't get his weed trimmer back. Here we will have two YOUNG children fight to the death(off camera) to save their mother(Felissa Rose) from being killed. It might seem like a simple premise but its actually quite the story.Last but not least we get a tease of what will certainly be the main story for a sequel in which the character Steve(Chris Raab) will be a big part of I'm thinking and I look forward to it, it was a great setup and horror fans are gonna flip over it.The movie also stars John Philbin, Timothy Dugan,Tyler Nemeth, Alex Markousis and Jamie Baker with a cameo from ex playboy playmate Angelina Leigh.It is also the first movie to ever premiere on Facebook so check it out for only $5. I highly recommend it.....