SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

TheLittleSongbird Not much to add to what has been said already. Coming from someone who has not read the book, The Little House could have been better than it turned out to be but it had a lot of things that were really good. Lets start with those good things first, first and foremost Francesca Annis, who steals the show in the mother-in-law-from-hell role that has been seen many times before but rarely as chillingly as with Annis. In fact all the performances were very good and the chemistry is all believable, credit also should go to Lucy Griffith who was immensely likable as The Little House's most relatable character. The Little House looks great, very skilfully shot and the house is like a character of its own and suits the nature of the story very well. John Lunn's music is both charming and eerie while also being unobtrusive, the dialogue is snappy and also gives the right amount of foreboding, most of the direction is good and the characters in the first half are well written. The first half of The Little House is brilliant, the atmosphere is genuinely unsettling, everything's coherent and you at least know who the characters are and their motivations. The second half doesn't quite match up, the performances and atmosphere just about keep things afloat but it did feel rushed(I agree another episode or two would have helped) and ideas are introduced right out of the blue and are rarely fully explored. The ending is also agreed incredibly underwhelming, it could have been clever and creepy and was neither, instead it feels like an anti-climax and that it belongs somewhere else. Almost like the writers were not sure how to end it and just tacked one on. All in all, has a lot of good things, in the case of the acting and the first half great, but the rushed and underdeveloped second half and the ending make The Little House also uneven. 6/10 Bethany Cox

tracy townley I read the book by Philippa Gregory a few years ago and thought an adaptation of the book would be worth watching. However, the T.V. version did not have the menace of the book. The T.V. series might have worked better as a three parter as the 2 parts seemed to be rather rushed. Why was the male teacher character in it?, what was the role of the sister in Canada? why did the dad change character in the last half hour? Who were the American relatives (and why were they mentioned at all?) And worst of all why change the ending - the ending in the book was far more clever

jc-osms This two-part TV production was going along quite well, I thought, heading for an anticipated showdown between Francesca Annis's mother-in-law from hell and her would-be victim Lucy Griffith and also one really good twist surely just around the corner waiting to finish it off neatly. Instead, we get a blink-and-you-miss-it denouement with Annis at last getting her just desserts and Griffith turning the tables on her even after the wicked witch is dead, but it was an ending without surprise or tension and for me let down what had been reasonably effectively built up till then.Not that there weren't other faults too, for example, Annis's husband Tim Pigot-Smith's character is too ambiguous. In episode 1 you're convinced he's in cahoots with his wife's nefarious and frankly unfathomable wish to appropriate Griffith's child for herself but in the second show, he's revealed to be innocent and in fact exposes, even if unwittingly, some of Annis's devious plans. There's also a male friend of Griffith who you think is going to play a bigger part than he does and there's also an obscure red-herring too in the references to Annis's other daughter, who now lives aboard and obviously has a testy relationship with her mother, presumably because she wasn't a boy.There were no genuinely scary moments, the only fairly mundane attempt being Annis's silly dressing up as Griffith's late mother, in full 60's hippy gear, to supposedly convince her victim she's lost her mind, but it maintained a decent head of steam up until that anti-climactic finish which let it down.The acting by the four leads is all good and a chilly if not chilling atmosphere is pretty well conveyed from the start. Again I felt a bit more menace could have been conveyed in the sets for the houses themselves especially given the series title, after all.

beresfordjd We watched the first episode and really enjoyed it- it was not too original a story but Francesca Annis made a great evil Mother-in -Law. I am sure everyone watching thought she would deserve her come-uppance, and looked forward to the time when it would happen. The daughter-in-law was a sympathetic character and we rooted for her totally. Tim Pigott-Smith, playing the father-in-law, is shown being frustrated and slightly annoyed at his wife's actions throughout but doing nothing and the son ignoring his wife's frustrations and not seeing his mother's controlling ways. When it turns out that she kills her husbands mother in a not too carefully directed scene where she does/does not do it on purpose - the viewer is left wondering whether it was a purposeful killing or an accident. We do not blame her for being elated over the death but the second episode limped towards a very poor end. This had potential, a good cast and a somewhat tired premise. One thing I really loved was the in-laws house what a beautiful location!!!