Plot
A mother and daughter move to a new town and find themselves living next door to a house where a young girl murdered her parents. When the daughter befriends the surviving son, she learns the story is far from over.

Release Year: 2012

Director: Mark Tonderai

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue, Max Thieriot

Storyline
Newly divorced Sarah and her daughter Elissa find the house of their dreams in a small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret.

Writers: David Loucka, Jonathan Mostow

Cast:
Jennifer Lawrence - Elissa
Max Thieriot - Ryan
Elisabeth Shue - Sarah
Gil Bellows - Weaver
Eva Link - Carrie Anne
Nolan Gerard Funk - Tyler
Allie MacDonald - Jillian
Jordan Hayes - Penn State Carrie Anne
Krista Bridges - Mary Jacobson
James Thomas - Ben Reynolds
Hailee Sisera - Caitlin
Craig Eldridge - Dan Gifford
Jonathan Higgins - Dr. Kohler
Olivier Surprenant - Jake
Lori Alter - Jenny Gifford

Taglines: Fear reaches out... for the girl next door.

Release Date: 21 September 2012

Filming Locations: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Box Office Details

Budget: $7,000,000 (estimated)

Technical Specs

Runtime: 101 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:
The project was originally announced in 2003 with Jonathan Mostow directing and Richard Kelly scripting.

User Review

It's not what you thought.

Rating:

Don't judge this movie before you see it! Or you are making the same mistake early mentions of Cabin In The Woods made, 'another teen horror remake', etc. Its title works when you understand that the film is not what it seems.

I got tickets from 'gofobo' to see this with my girlfriend, right after the film had been finished in December last year, and it was some kind of test screening, where we had to answer some questions at the end. It was quite a bit better than I thought it was going to be, my girlfriend loved it, and at the time neither of us had heard of Jennifer Lawrence.

Now it took us a while to get to see The Hunger Games, but we finally saw it last week, there are quite a few strange similarities to House At the End of the Street. This week I saw the trailer for House At.. (ok HATES from now on, its quicker!). We were told at the screening it was coming out April, but I guess they moved it so it didn't come out when Hunger Games was still in cinemas? Or maybe that would have been good to release it now! It's an interesting film, and I will probably go see it again... something I don't do for most films. If I do it's because I want to figure out some stuff that happens at the start and see how it affects the film when you know what it was all about...

The trailer makes it out to be a haunted house type horror- but there's a good reason. It's reversed-thing (not a feature of the movie) is also saying something important- to figure this movie out, (it is a puzzle that you have to solve), you need to pay attention at the start of the film! I got on IMDb and I see how lots of people think it's a tit-jigglin' dumb teen horror with a bad title. Now, while this isn't Cabin In The Woods, in that its not a hipster horror-comedy, it is doing something clever by using a dumb generic title... then if you see it thinking, aw I know what this is, you will be wrong, and pleasantly surprised! HATES has the same effect, but not in a crazy Cabin way. But someone writing 'Cabin in the Woods' off because it sounds like a remake of Cabin Fever and Don't Go In the Woods, is making the same mistake as all the people saying "Last House at The End of Dead End Street"... couldn't they think up a better title? Just like Cabin, it's using your prejudice to trick you into thinking you know the rules, but if I say more, I'll ruin it. And no, it's not something insane like Cabin! I've seen a lot of people saying, it must be a cheap horror cashing in on Jennifer's sudden fame. But from what I can see, now I know who she is, she's a super-talented actress who chooses her films with care. X-Men would definitely be the most suspect choice so far. This isn't some cheap'n'nasty horror she made before Winters Bone that's been cut down to a PG-13 as some 'haters' have moaned. In the way it looks and feels, it is quite European (British director- and a Producer who made Memento and Donnie Darko) - I also thought that of Hunger Games.. it was somewhere between art-house drama and blockbuster. This is similar, and while Hunger Games was supposed to be a Sci-Fi, and HATES is supposed to be a Horror, neither of them is either of those things. They are both great dramas about survival and choices... who you fall in love with, whose advice you should take... In some ways they are so similar it might draw shouts from Hunger Games fans... both films feature a threat in the woods so I bet there will be moments where people are shouting "Katniss! Use your bow!" But in other ways HATES was very different- it has a real twist or two that keep you puzzling about who is who, why things are happening- so its a thriller in that sense.

Hunger Games is maybe a superior film and has more scale, adventure and budget to play with, but if you liked the tone of HG you will like HATES. Both are scary but not unpleasant, both are held together by gripping, tough performances from Jennifer Lawrence, both actually have something to say and think about after the movie finishes.

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