The House by the Edge of the Park begins on shaky footing, with a too-explicit rape. However, I must say the next 60 minutes were intriguing and entertaining. The final 30 minutes, however, were there simply for shock value and for the ol' "twist for the sake of a twist." Too bad -- they had the makings of a good movie there for a while. *spoiler alerts* Think about this. If you had NOT seen the rape in the first scene, don't you think the scenes at the house for the first 45 minutes would have been a lot more interesting? We would have been guessing who was playing who, and what all these people's agendas were. Had they just had a reference to the rape in the opening credits (kind of like Identity did recently with its subject matter), it would have worked. Instead, we all know what is going to happen; and the "twist" at the end becomes ridiculous when you consider they could have gotten the gun when he was upstairs "raping" the hot one from the shower (man was she attractive). I put "rape" in quotes of course because she was obviously enjoying it, which was yet another feeble attempt to "shock" the audience. A mixed bag -- but overall I can't recommend it due to the major flaws. Any justification whatsoever to them not getting to the gun sooner is laughable, and let's face it -- if they get to gun sooner, there is no movie.
By the way, David Hess was pitiful here -- people seem to think he was so good -- all he does is use a nervous giggle throughout that detracts from any good he is doing with the character. He seems like a super nice guy on his website, but that constant giggling has to go.
Finally, a lot of people have used the word "disturbing" to describe this movie. That word for me has a subtle positive connotation to it that means the filmmakers achieved their goal artistically. Se7en was disturbing. THIS movie was merely unpleasant.
5/10
By the way, David Hess was pitiful here -- people seem to think he was so good -- all he does is use a nervous giggle throughout that detracts from any good he is doing with the character. He seems like a super nice guy on his website, but that constant giggling has to go.
Finally, a lot of people have used the word "disturbing" to describe this movie. That word for me has a subtle positive connotation to it that means the filmmakers achieved their goal artistically. Se7en was disturbing. THIS movie was merely unpleasant.
5/10