HOUSE OF 9 - (2005) DVD review

House of 9 (2005)



Plot:   Stick 9 very different people in a sealed house together.  Feed them only chicken, spuds and whisky throw in a potential $5 million if they kill each other, film it and you’ve got a the answer to Big Brothers falling viewing figures.  Or in this case House of 9.   

The  voice in the wall has had them kidnapped for his own sick entertainment and in what seems like an amazingly short amount of time for society to collapse the inmates go from just generally disliking each other to psychotic.  As the greed and paranoia grows so does the body count and the $5 million looks doable. 




 Is it good:  The varied group which as the voice (In the wall) says are specifically chosen (because of how they would act towards each other, much like in reality TV where opposites are picked to cause conflict).  

Time of the month alert

Kelly Brook, generally regarded as just a pair of tits with eyes who can’t hold a job fairs quite well as Lea the most human of the bunch.  

It’s difficult for me to see Max (Peter Capaldi) as anything but the“fuck cunt” spouting Scot Malcom Tucker from “The thick of it” but he is a good actor.  In fact (Almost all) the actors do a pretty good job Jay (Raffaello), Shona (Morven Christie) Al B (Ashley Walters) all come across believable (They are not supposed to come of well or as heroes as their characters are meant to be different kinds of arsehole chosen because they are likely to kill under certain amount of pressure).

Not exactly a splatter-fest but one scene with a face and an Iron bar is pretty harsh. 

At least there is no Brian Dowling

Turdige:  Dennis Hopper has played some brilliant characters (Frank Booth in  Blue Velvet (1986) the stand off in True Romance (1993)) Father Duffy is not one of them.  Fuck knows how the other actors could listen to is piss poor Irish accent and not burst out laughing.  Jay (Raffaello Degruttola) played an American cop so why they just didn’t let the Hop use his own voice.

Susie Amy is  terrible actress and unfortunately the usually reliable "tits out" Julienne Davis keeps them covered.


The film seemed to be lacking in effort as it had all the action points associated with these trapped by mysterious people, no way out Kind of movies

Bejesus... fiddle de de

1.      Denial

  2.      Attempt to escape

  3.      Work together

  4.      Paranoia split allegiances

  5.      More paranoia, fights

  6.      Acceptance of the choices given at the start and deaths      

   

But it all seems to happen in (as there is no help with a time on the camera) 2/3 days which you can only pick up from the couple of times they get food.   I assume it’s over a much longer period but a couple good scenes hitting you with that would help draw you into the movie and feel the reasons for the breakdown.

Unused outtake

More of an issue is the time it takes for them to give up trying to escape and accept their prison its astounding.  The house is fully functional showers/toilets/electrics but they don’t try and dismantle any of it and find a source or at least spoil the big guys TV show.  




   
Overall:   Not a bad film but erratically paced and even more erratically acted (By Hopper) some nice touches and a great twist of an ending (I believe there are alternate endings so errr good luck).  With what they had, it seems a missed opportunity to make something much better. 

Director: Steven R. Monroe Cast: Dennis Hopper, Kelly Brook, Susie Amy, Peter Capaldi , Hippolyte Girardot, Ashley Walters






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