Viewed – 30 April 2013  Blu-ray

Following her recent Oscar win at this year’s Academy Awards, actress Jennifer Lawrence has quickly become the ‘it’ girl of the movie industry with decent performances in not only the celebrated Silver Linings Play Book but also cult favorite The Hunger Games.   So Hollywood’s latest offering in the spooky suburban horror cannon, has Lawrence as a young woman who moves to a neighborhood with her mother (Elizabeth Shue, now officially Hollywood’s token MILF).  There, stories circulate of the house next door (and subsequently at the end of the street) where a double murder happened four years previous, involving a teenage girl stabbing to death her parents.  Shudder.  But wait!  There is a misunderstood survivor of the tragedy, the teenage son who lives alone at the house, and guess what?  Lawrence starts to take interest in him.

Lawrence delivers a plucky, likable performance with Shue doing her usual over-protective mother thing (see: Piranha) and apart from a few creepy camera-angles, some effective jump-scares and generally good production values, this for the most part was nothing special.  A mildly diverting twist in the later stages woke me up out of the doldrums, and the idea here, once all is revealed is a good one … but the wait to get there is just tiresome and clichéd.   Stuck-up socialites looking down on the damaged boy, the girl who wants to make a difference etc.  Supporting cast look like rejects from defunct TV series The OC, and yes we have a bully and his beer-swilling jock friends … yawn.  Although Lawrence’s breasts in a tight Die-Hard vest almost steal the show towards the end …  even her gradually brightening star status wasn’t enough to save this from bargain basement hell.

Verdict:  2 /5

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• Jennifer Lawrence’s Legs Are On Full Display While Out Shopping In L.A. (PHOTO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• House at the End of the Street (2012) (filmoanalysis.wordpress.com)
• Could Jennifer Lawrence Have Been The Next Gisele? (huffingtonpost.com)