The Open House Review

Now available on Netflix Streaming.

I should have read the reviews already online before watching this one. The critics were right, the movie was horrible, and I have a high tolerance for bad films.

The movie started strong enough. The lead character, Logan (played by 13 Reasons Why’s Dylan Minnette) watches his father die in a parking lot. I liked Minnette’s performance in 13 Reasons and was interested to see him in another Netflix film.

As we watch, Logan’s father is the only person outside in the parking lot under bright lights and in front of the garbage cans. A car aims directly at him as it lunges forward. Foreshadowing of a secret life? Something that we need to learn about the family? Sadly, no. Nothing is ever revealed about the circumstances of the father’s death.

Logan and his mom then move to a secluded, creepy house in the great outdoors, and meet lots of weird people, including the realtors who stage and execute the open house one weekend. Excellent. The neighbors have a plot? Hate strangers? The realtors really run a demonic cult? Who knows, but I expected a payoff by the end, an understanding of why things in the movie progressed as they did.

What I actually witness in the last 20 minutes of the film is nothing of the sort. There is violence, but no meaning to it. After watching the film, I’m left with many unanswered questions and two hours less of my life. I’m angry that there was no payoff.

Spoiler: We never learn who the killer is or why he commits the murders. What we do see are many scenes where Logan takes out his contact lenses and views the world as a blur before putting his glasses on, and then the killer does this as well. He takes Logan’s contact lenses out of his eyes. Why would a killer do this?

There is no explanation other than the director wanted to leave all of us in a haze of confusion. That is the only thing this movie does very well.