Review for House of Purgatory

(Originally posted on fight-evil.com)

*This is my first-time viewing of the film*

This movie doesn't have that atypical a plot: On Halloween night, four high school kids go looking for a legendary haunted house, reputed to refund your money for each floor of the house completed. It's a moderately generic plot, but the execution is superb in most ways.

The characters are all decently realistic, and when the haunted house makes them face their inner fears, it really humanizes some of the characters who were less real beforehand (Ryan, played by Brad Fry, is a good case in point). The whole concept is done well, really. Four teens enter this house, and throughout the night, secrets that each one holds become revealed. Some of them seemingly small, and others rather big. And it's a fun ride throughout (despite much of the content and secrets being rather serious and culturally topical).

My biggest issue with this film is the ending, though, which I didn't think did enough to explain things, and it felt both corny and unnecessary. I had a list in my mind of different possible endings that would have been better, but apparently that wasn't to be, which for an otherwise deeply enjoyable film, was a bit of a letdown. The production value on this movie is quite a bit higher than I foresaw it being, and while there are jump scares here and there, this movie has more to offer than that. A surprising movie that I rather enjoyed, this is a Halloween movie I'd recommend. 9/10.