Schilling) and Natalie (Emily Sweet) who did a job that went wrong. Once the open house has ended, Heather arrives to take Susan to dinner only for them to be taken hostage by a pair of criminals Keith (Justin C. Her boss Paul (Richard Neil) has her run an open house on a fancy home that sits on seventy acres. Susan (Jennifer Taylor) is a widower and real estate struggling to tell her daughter, Heather (Julia Terranova), that she is selling the family home. It is directed by David Benullo and written by Daniel West. Hostage House is available to watch on Netflix in the US, the UK, Australia and South Africa now.Dawn’s Light production company brings us the thriller ‘ Hostage House,’ which was released onto Netflix. It’s almost as if the filmmakers wanted to “elevate” this particular TV-movie tale into something more, so added a diatribe about rich folk in hopes of giving this film substance it so desperately needs.īut Hostage House doesn’t have any substance, its very much a “turn off your brain” type of film that spoon feeds the audience all they need to know without every having to think, because if you did think you’d question why the hell most of what’s happening is taking place and how people can be so dumb! It’s a plot we’ve seen a million times before: “bad guy wants money and tries to take it”, adding a socio-political statement on the rich getting rich and the poor getting poorer does nothing to change anything – especially when the film descends into the screaming match over money towards the end of the film. In this case robbing large homes and/or blackmailing homeowners. And our villains? They’re the poor 99%, the folks who have no money but want it – taking it anyway they can. Remarkably, Hostage House aims its target at the great American 1% the rich folk who live in big houses the Ivy League university types who have money. West has peened films such as Manny Dearest, Psycho Wedding Crasher, Killer Single Dad and Am I a Serial Kiler… which is my way of saying you can probably tell what you’re in for with Hostage House just on those titles alone! Whatever happened to good TV movie thrillers? When did parody and satire become the norm? Which ties more into the work of writer Daniel West rather than the directors previous work. Which kind of fits into Netflix’s recent spate of terrible cheesy movies that seemingly are satires of said TV movies – films like Secret Obsession and Dangerous Lies. this one goes down the “Lifetime/Hallmark” movie route, playing more for the melodrama than anything else. You’d assume that Benullo might bring some of that horror experience to this film – perhaps make it more like 2016’s Intruders which was a more terrifying take on the genre. Which is odd considering director David Benullo previously directed the quasi-religious horror Hallowed Ground. I does feature its protagonists eventually taking on the thieves but the bulk of the film plays more on the tension between captives and captors – only finally moving into anything resembling your typical home invasion movie in the final third of the film. Who doesn’t love a good Die Hard-esque home invasion movie? Homeowners versus thieves in a battle of wits… Or maybe an adult version of Home Alone, with traps taking out crooks? Yeah Hostage House is neither of those things no matter how much I wanted it to be. Hostage House sees an ambitious realtor, who’s showing a palatial-looking home in her neighbourhood, get caught up, along with her daughter, in a hostage situation during an open house… Schilling, Patrick Cronen, Richard Neil, Kamen Casey | Written by Daniel West | Directed by David Benullo Stars: Jennifer Taylor, Julia Terranova, Emily Sweet, Justin C.
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