Paranormal content creators are menaced by a malevolent presence when they investigate an abandoned house in the woods.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Kris Collins
Starring: Kris Collins, Celina Myers, Jason-Christopher Mayer
Kris Collins and Celina Myers are YouTubers with over 15 million followers between them. For perspective, there are 172 countries with populations smaller than that number. With such huge inbuilt recognition, it's no surprise that so many YouTubers are making the leap to feature filmmaking, the most successful examples so far being Kogonada (Columbus) and the Philippou brothers (Talk To Me), who have made the switch from online content to working with the likes of Colin Farrell and Sally Hawkins.
House on Eden, written and directed by Collins, is a far less ambitious transition from the laptop to the cinema screen. It's a found footage movie, a sub-genre that has quietly been making something of a comeback in recent years, spearheaded by the cult success of the Hell House LLC franchise. The influence of that series, along with The Blair Witch Project, can be felt throughout Collins' debut.
Collins and Myers play Kris and Celina, unflattering fictional versions of themselves. Here they're the co-hosts of a YouTube series that specialises in paranormal content. You know the sort, where people trawl through abandoned buildings in the hope of catching a distant shadow that might creep out their viewers. The gals are accompanied by Jason (Jason-Christopher Mayer), a videographer who has grown tired of Kris's prissy, tyrannical attitude (she's constantly correcting his framing and setups throughout).
Desperate for some decent content, Kris has learned of a remote, abandoned home known as "The House on Eden Road," which is said to be connected with the disappearance of a young woman many years ago. After much driving and trudging through the woods, the trio eventually come upon the house, which is indeed abandoned, yet despite the lack of electricity, is fully furnished as though it were occupied quite recently. Like a reversal of a classic fairy tale, these three bears make themselves at home, unaware that the house is occupied by a very sinister Goldilocks.
Despite the credits rolling at the 75 minute mark, it takes over 50 minutes for anything supernatural to occur in House on Eden. Before that we're forced to spend far too much time watching these three jerks squabbling and mugging for the camera. With so much time invested in hanging out with three characters, we learn little about their relationship, save for Celina and Jason are sick of Kris bossing them around. The movie fails to clue us in on one important detail, that of whether Kris and Celina actually believe in the supernatural or are simply making a living from online hoaxes.
It's not until the movie's climax that it becomes clear that Kris and Celina do indeed take this seriously, as they deploy an arsenal of devices that allow them to communicate with the spirit world. In filmmaking terms, a couple of these doohickeys are effective in generating tension, like balls that light up when a spirit passes or a music box that plays if something unseen comes near it; it's just a shame the movie leaves it so late to roll them out.
Three distinct cameras are deployed here: a modern state of the art digital camera, a Hi8 VHS camera, and an 8mm camera. Initially it seems like a clever way for the audience to keep track of whose perspective we're seeing, but with the characters constantly swapping cameras this conceit becomes redundant. I'm not sure YouTubers would put themselves to the trouble and expense of processing 8mm footage, but the lo-fi VHS footage certainly adds to the snuff movie aesthetic, and it's deployed effectively in the finale.
That finale is just about worth waiting around for, if you can make it through almost an hour spent in the company of three increasingly irksome protagonists. There are some impressive low budget effects, and some lore is revealed that leaves things open for a continuation of this narrative. If a sequel is to emerge, it will require more thought regarding the storytelling. Collins' writing is too clunky by far here, with the movie pausing at one point for her character to literally read a Wikipedia article to the audience. You can get away with such things for an undemanding YouTube audience, but paying customers expect better.
House On Eden is in US cinemas from July 25th. A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.
