The House at the End of Time (2013)

A Brilliant Conflict

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

The first must-see film of the year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It was a cleverly written film, well made and well acted. Though it's reminiscent enough of an often-adapted Stephen King short story that it doesn't feel entirely unique, it still manages to surprise. Unfortunately, the whole experience was overshadowed for me by the heavy undercurrent of "men are bad so it's alright to abuse them" sentiment that informed the film's treatment of its male lead. In an era where a great deal of cinema is keen to make a statement about gender, this film's position, that might not otherwise have stood out, seemed absolutely glaring.

Okay, I'm no part Venezuelan.It's a good film. American audiences, take it for what it is, a low budget film from a small film industry. Yes, it has weakpoints, but also strengths. Pros: innovative plot twists, well filmed. Cons: Slow starter, overdramatizing music gives away some surprises, a few connections are contrived. Overall: A good twist on a psychological pensive ghost story.Who might like this? It's a little old school, like Gaslight, with some of the Spanish style, like Del Toro's Devil's Backbone. A touch of The Others, not as polished, but if you like those films, and are looking for something else, this would be a good one to watch.ps. To reviewers & commenters : Don't knock countries. Americans love European & Mexican movies. We're not latinophobes. Key? Subtlety. It's much more powerful if a twist happens and we almost miss it, and then wham, it's there. Just like some day noticing "oh, huh, they're from Venezuela."This needed saying because of the number of comments on the topic comments and reviews. I know funding is hard to come by for major projects in Venezuela, so kudos, keep it up. I look forward to future results.

After watching REC and REC 2 I wanted to see what else foreign films had to offer. This movie held my interest for a while then it got confusing.Most movies that play with time, time lapsing and time travel usually run into some type of conundrum and this movie is no exception. The conundrums vary and I'd be giving away the farm if I explained the one in this movie.If I'm rating this movie on pure enjoyment, I wasn't that pleased. It got quite boring and it wasn't really original or creative. If I'm rating this on a curve because it's a foreign film then I'd give it a couple of extra stars.Truthfully, I think the movie was riddled with plot holes and too many unexplained events. They were throwing red herrings all over the place. I think they caught a case of trying to be too clever and muddled up the plot. Sometimes less is best.

I see all the other reviews and feel like I should talk about how awesome this movie is but the fact is that the trailer sold the movie as a horror, convinced me to buy on that premise, and let me down. So, this review will be based on my expectations of a horror. It did have a good story, which I feel didn't really make sense in the end, but a good story none the less. I think they started revealing the secrets way too early because I had already pieced the whole thing together about 2/3 of the way through and the last 3rd, which is suppose to be the most suspenseful, turned out to be very predictable. To summarize my thoughts, this movie had a lot of potential and I think a better directory could have done a whole lot more with it.