THE STORY – Setting out to film their next paranormal investigation, Kris, Celina and Jay encounter a malevolent, ancient spirit that resides in an abandoned house deep in the woods.
THE CAST – Kris Collins, Celina Myers & Jason-Christopher Mayer
THE TEAM – Kris Collins (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 78 Minutes
Every found footage movie made in the last 25 years owes its existence to “The Blair Witch Project.” The infamous low-budget sensation that took the world by storm in 1999 has led to countless copycats, some successful (the “Paranormal Activity” series) and some less so (where do we even begin?) “House on Eden” is one of the more obvious “Blair Witch” imitators, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, if you’re going to borrow a formula, why not borrow from the best? But where the granddaddy of found footage films scared the bejesus out of audiences thanks to cleverly obscured camerawork and ingenious filmmaking workarounds, “House on Eden” struggles to conjure up genuine scares, instead favoring hollow horror imagery and, as one character puts it, “vibes, all vibes.”
Just like “Blair Witch,” “House on Eden” centers around a trio of wannabe video stars, portrayed by young actors using their real names. Here, they’re a paranormal investigation team made up of leader Kris (played by TikTok sensation Kris Collins, who also serves as the film’s writer and director), co-host Celina (Celina Myers, also a content creator), and technician Jay (Jason-Christopher Mayer). As the film begins, the three videographers are driving through the middle of nowhere in search of a cemetery that they hope to use for one of their videos. But without prior warning, Kris instead leads them in pursuit of an abandoned, supposedly haunted house deep in the woods. According to Kris, the house is off the map and hasn’t been investigated by other paranormal teams. After winding their way through dense forest, they finally find the house – empty, fully furnished, and without power. In other words, it’s their dream shooting location. Excited with their discovery, they set up an array of electronic ghost-hunting equipment and began their investigation. But when things start to get truly and unexplainably spooky, it starts to become clear that the otherworldly force that lives in the house doesn’t have benevolent intentions.
One of the most challenging hurdles that any found footage film must clear is explaining why the characters are constantly filming everything around them. In the worst films of this subgenre, the idea that the characters would keep the cameras rolling as danger escalates stretches believability to the point of absurdity. “House on Eden” doesn’t have this issue. Just as in “Blair Witch,” the trio – led by a determined young woman – hopes to capture something paranormal, so their unending filming makes perfect sense, even in the face of eventual danger. In fact, the film’s smartest choice is to utilize different home video formats, including silent 8mm footage, classic video, and modern digital formats. The retro video camera work is especially effective. There’s just something inherently spooky about seeing something not-quite-right filmed in the same manner as ’90s birthday parties and weddings. At times, the film even switches between video and digital footage of the same unnerving image, and the video footage is always more terrifying.
The bond between the three young filmmakers is the most realistic part of the movie. The film devotes a significant portion of its extremely short runtime to following them as they joke around, establishing a believable group dynamic that only serves to make their divisive behavior and actions in the film’s latter half more unsettling. Myers in particular invests her character with a jovial, taking-nothing-seriously attitude that makes her character feel fully lived-in. Picture the kind of girl who drunkenly tells you that your hair looks good in a bar bathroom. Collins and Mayer have a similar off-the-cuff energy, especially in the film’s expositional opening scenes.
But it’s a problem when a horror movie’s set-up is much more intriguing than its eventual pay-off – and “House on Eden” has a lot of set-up that doesn’t pay off. Collins incorporates as many clichés of the modern horror genre as possible into the film. Vague cult imagery? Check. Creepy old people? Check. Sudden nudity? Check. And there are simply too many thematic breadcrumbs that may seem scary at first notice, but they either don’t pay off effectively or don’t pay off at all.
There are a lot of promising ideas in “House on Eden,” but, like too many horror movies of its ilk, most of them don’t fulfill said promise. Upsetting images may temporarily jolt viewers, but “House on Eden’s” horror foundation is built upon unimpressive jump scares (there are as many door slams as in a classic episode of “Scooby-Doo”) and been-there-done-that ideas. Collins’s young fans who find her directorial debut via her social media presence may use this as a valuable starting point for their horror film education. Still, anyone who’s ever actually considered a visit to the forests of Burkittsville, Maryland, won’t find much here that they haven’t seen before.
