Sixteen-year-old Hendrik, a city boy who recently lost his father, sees his life change overnight when the mother finds a job in a small village in southern Austria, and forces the family unit – which also includes the second son, little Eddi – to move there in a hurry.
The impact with the new reality is not at all simple for Hendrik, forced to leave his native Germany and his old friends to start from scratch. The new house also does not appear to be in excellent condition and this is a reason for further tension.
As if this were not enough, the house is haunted by disturbing presences linked to the tragic past of the previous owners and Eddi begins to behave in an increasingly strange way, due to a sort of voice that seems to recall him to the attic. With the help of the beautiful Ida and the very young Fritz, a resourceful kid, Hendrik will try to unravel the mystery of the dismal abode, to avoid that what happened previously does not happen again and endangers the lives of loved ones.
A school horror
One could define it as a classic teen-horror, but the really low age of the protagonists prevents him from fully entering this category. In fact, at the center of the story we find two teenagers and two children, struggling with a ghost-story with light and easy-going tones, where terror and gender-based violence are deliberately left aside.
Even in the most themed passages, with sudden possessions and revealing mirrors that show the presence of supernatural entities, everything is always rosewater and those in search of strong emotions would do better to keep away from them, since the operation is clearly addressed to a target of young spectators, struggling with their first cinematic scares.
Contextualized in this perspective, The creepy house can also be pleasant and fun, given that for times and ways the script flows with a certain naturalness and you get to the end credits almost without realizing it, always if interested or not in what is happening on the screen.
Take or leave
New original from the Netflix catalog, the film directed by Daniel Prochaska – at its debut in a feature film – it is therefore an atypical title, which here and there recovers 80s tones and atmospheres and tries to adapt horror for an audience not accustomed to jump-scare and dark and anxious tones. Indeed, here adventurous flashes are mixed, as in the final part in which two of the main characters – also at the center of a platonic love-story – find themselves fighting for their own survival amidst the fury of nature.
The unraveling of the actual mystery may appear quite predictable , but it is a defect that is not felt that much and is however forgivable in a film of this type, designed without too many pretensions and as already said clearly aimed at certain audiences.
The cast of beardless interpreters gets along discreetly, certainly better than the adult one, which, on the other hand, is a simple support to the jaunty mission of the four, who between séances and desperate nocturnal escapes will do everything to discover the truth behind The Disturbing House.