Film / The Open House

Death. It's like it moves in and... never leaves.

Logan: Have you ever thought about how, like, weird open houses are?
Naomi: What?
Logan: I mean, you give your keys to someone you hardly know, they stand in one room and welcome in a bunch of complete strangers, and those people just roam around the house. And the realtor doesn't check the house when it's done, right? They just... turn the lights off and go?
Naomi: Okay, well, now I'm not gonna sleep tonight.
Logan: Maybe you shouldn't sleep tonight.

The Open House is a 2018 horror film written and directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, starring Dylan Minnette, Piercey Dalton, Sharif Atkins, Patricia Bethune, and Aaron Abrams.

After the death of his father (Abrams), destitute teenager Logan Wallace (Minette) and his mother Naomi (Dalton) move into her sister's secluded mountain mansion until it sells. They encounter a friendly store clerk (Atkins) and their erratic elderly neighbor (Bethune). However, they experience strange occurrences, ultimately finding themselves besieged by threatening forces.

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This film provides examples of:

• All Just a Dream: Logan seeing his dead father bleed in the basement.
• Artistic License – Engineering: When Logan tries to call 911, he is unable to because the killer stole the SIM cards out of his and Naomi's phones. In real life, most cell phones can still call 911 without a SIM card, as long as they are within range of a cell tower.
• Big Bad: An unnamed Serial Killer terrorizing people at open houses.
• Black Dude Dies First: Chris is the intruder's first victim.
• Blind Without 'Em: Logan, who switches between glasses and contacts but can barely see without corrective lenses.
• Creepy Basement: The million-dollar mansion's basement has no lighting.
• Downer Ending: Logan mistakes Naomi for the intruder and stabs her, and is later strangled after fleeing into the woods. The intruder gets off scot-free and drives to another open house event for the next unsuspecting victim(s).
• Event Title: The Open House.
• Fingore: Naomi has her fingers broken by the intruder.
• Foreshadowing: Logan removing his contacts foreshadows when the intruder later removes them, thus blinding Logan.
• For the Evulz: The mysterious killer doesn't want money, doesn't appear to have any motive against Logan's family nor even want the house he's staying in. When Logan's dead, he simply stomps off to another house to do it all again.
• The Faceless: The intruder's face is never revealed, much less his identity.
• The Hero Dies: Logan is strangled to death by the killer after being hunted down for a night straight.
• Karma Houdini: The intruder is still at large after murdering Chris and Logan.
• Idiot Ball: Logan doesn't even struggle against the killer when he removes his contact lenses. This is so he'll later run into the forest at night blind.
• Leitmotif: "Rip Van Winkle" by Shannon and the Clams, first played on the night Logan's father died. Logan listens to the song a second time, and the intruder later plays it full-blast in the mansion to intimidate him.
• No Name Given: The killer. He's only named as the "Man in Black" in the credits.
• Red Herring:
  • It's hinted that the neighbor is the killer, but she only exists to throw us off the trail..
  • Chris wears the same boots as the killer and suspiciously enters the Wallace's basement. The real killer murders Chris.
• Sadist: The unnamed killer, who spends his days sneaking into people's open houses to psychologically torture them until he gets bored and goes in for the kill. He's barely characterized, but seems to be motivated by nothing but pure sadism.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Logan, of all people, as the killer strangles him to death.
• Slashed Throat: How Chris is killed.
• Too Dumb to Live: Where to even begin with this?
  • Neither Logan nor Naomi behave in any sensible manner upon learning of their house being broken into. Say what? You were told somebody broke into your isolated house and that it's not safe to be there? That somebody has been messing around with the equipment in the house just to gaslight the two of you? And that you've been stalked and harassed by this random stranger who knew where you live for several days now? Why not just keep sleeping there? It's not like something bad is going to happen?
  • Logan finds his mom tied up by the killer and instead of beating feet the hell out of there, both of them chose to stay and talk. For minutes, even. This is despite the very real possibility of the killer still being around and can return at any moment. He is, and does. Logan himself acknowledges this, but Naomi of all people somehow tries to convince him to stay.
  • Despite having a perfectly drivable car just outside their front door, Logan decides to linger around and tries to call the police instead of attempting to use it to leave the house. One could argue that it's made difficult since Naomi is the only one who could drive and her fingers are broken, but she could have just easily instructed Logan to operate the vehicle instead.
  • Logan, when somebody is trying to reach for your eyes to remove your contacts, and that you knew you'd be Blind Without 'Em, you shut them as hard as you can!
• Troll: The stranger is this when he's not actively killing Logan and Naomi. He seems to get much pleasure out of annoying and Gaslighting the hell out of his victims by tinkering with household devices and moving their stuff around, before finally going in for the kill.
• The Unreveal: The killer's identity is never revealed and how he knows many of the things Logan and Naomi know like the song "Rip Van Winkle" and Logan's personal connection to it is never explained. It's also never revealed whether or not he was responsible for the death of Logan's father.

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