Reviews: From a House on Willow Street (2016) Movie Review
Subgenres: Demons, Possession, Confined, Isolation
Our take on From a House on Willow Street (2016) explores its plot, scares, and horror highlights to help fans decide if it deserves a place on their watchlist.
From a House on Willow Street (2016) is a one h 30, min South African English horror movie with many action scenes and does not feel cramped or oppressive. Director, editor, writer, and producer Alastair Orr (Expiration (2011), The Unforgiving (2010), Indigenous (2014)) did a brilliant job with the setup of the movie and picking the cast. The film contains violence, foul language, gore, scares, scary scenes, jump scares, gruesome deaths, gorgeous cinematography, amazing makeup, special effects, and a dark secret.
From a House on Willow Street received my undivided attention from the first few seconds to the movie’s ending because the opening scene was terrific. The opening gave us the idea that we were in for a treat, portraying the film as if it would be scary and intense. The movie is about a group of people kidnapping a wealthy man’s daughter so that they can exchange the daughter for a massive stash of diamonds, but they do not know the deadly secret about the girl until it is too late. The group planned the kidnapping because they wanted to have enough money to disappear.
Hazel (Sharni Vinson - You’re Next (2011), Step Up 3D (2010), Home and Away (2001-2008), and Bait (2012)) was the one to choose the house and did her homework for the family. She is the smooth-talking one in the group with a criminal mind and primarily stays calm. Hazel’s plan that night could not have been seamless, but the group could not get in touch with the girl/Katherine’s parents through their cell phones and home phone. They decided to send two of their guys to visit Katherine’s parents’ home to investigate, but all they found were gruesome murders.
Group members at the building where Katherine is being held started to experience horrific hallucinations revolving around their deepest fears/regrets. You might have guessed by now, yes, Katherine is possessed by a demon who needs four souls to----, well, you will have to see the movie to see/know why.
Demons possessing humans/girls is nothing new, but this film offers something new to the premises. The movie paced nicely explored/captured the actor’s fear/regret with details, an exciting storyline/scenes, and had exceptional grisly deaths. I was grossed out several times in the film upon seeing the long tongue-like thing coming out of a few people’s mouths/throats with tentacles. I felt the scene in the forest/woods where Katherine and her two minions were hovering over Hazel was overdone; it should not have taken that long with their tongues moving in and out of their throats. One unique thing that was said in the movie that I have not heard before was where Katherine mentioned a female using a grater on someone’s throat to kill that person.
I must admit that I jumped very high out of my seat during the first jump scare, but I was expecting the other jump scares because the director used the same technique. With all said, all of the solid actors gave us fabulous performances. Horror fans should watch this movie and not knit pick at things.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- From a House on Willow Street Rating Scores
- Our Score: 8/10
- Overall Score: 5.76/10
- IMDB: 4.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 4.5/10
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