An 11
year old boy named David Rockland (Joey
Lawrence) is looking forward to his
flight trip to visit his father Bill
(Cliff DeYoung) and stepmother Ellen
(Roxanne Hart) in Los Angeles, California
for the summer but a house next door was
violently destroyed as well as some
people electrocuted to death there which
was unexplained and the house was boarded
up which concerned young David as he
discovers that the living room TV acts
weird plus it won't shut off.
Also he encounters some strange static on
a telephone pole while skateboarding on
the sidewalk and a little neighbor named
Stevie (Matthew Lawrence) told him about
the awful incidents that happened at that
house.
David checks out the abandoned house and
spots many damaged areas around the house
as well as a crazy old man named Holger
(Charles Tyner) which frightens David
even more.
David is terrorised by the electrical
systems going on in the house as they are
turning evil by having a vengeful life of
their own.
Ellen even suspects this but Bill thinks
that they're too paranoid but even he is
going to encounter this deadly force.
This film was
close to being original yet it borrowed a
bit from Poltergeist
like with the TV etc. Still it works very
well even if it's not a groundbreaking
film.
Just imagine if your electricity and
other things in your house turn out to be
deadly and tries to kill you which is an
unpleasant thought.
Sometimes the plot isn't scary enough but
of course this one is rated PG-13 so we
can't expect a heck of alot when it's
rated like that.
A good movie if you're in the mood for
the odd suspense and not the total scares
but otherwise you may want to try
something else.
The acting is in
fair taste. Although I was never a fan of
Cliff DeYoung's work he seems to
do fairly okay especially with his
aggressions and emotions too.
Roxanne Hart really delivers with
her good sympatheitc attitude in the film
really delivering her part inside out and
does a fine job with her crying and
scared emotions too.
Of course we get child superstar Joey
Lawrence as I never found him a
great actor when he got into his teens
during his teen idol years in Blossom
but however he's good when he's
a child like in Gimme a Break
as he knows his craft playing a typical
kid. He does well with his scared and
troubled actions.
We have a special appearance by baby
brother Matthew Lawrence as he
acted with him in many shows and has a
great cute and charming attitude. I
always found him more talented.
We have another small part by an elderly
actor named Charles Tyner who
does well with his crazy expressions and
words whom he reminds me of Walt
Gorney from Friday the 13th and
one time thought it actually was him.
There's also a bit part performance by Robert
Romanus as a TV repairman and still
has that Damone style from his memorable
performance in Fast Times at
Ridgemont High.
The directing is
quite good by Paul Golding as
he shows a beginnings of a house with
water all over and damaged stuff along
with a corpse and good shots on bit part
actors played by Terry Beaver, Greg
Norberg and Tim Russ as
policemen searching the place.
We also have some good interaction at a
dinner table performed by Joey
Lawrence, Cliff DeYoung and
Roxanne Hart.
We have a good shot on Joey Lawrence
walking down the stairs and looking
mysterious about stuff especially looking
at the TV that looked strange.
There's a great shot on Joey Lawrence
staring at an inside of a dryer and
a spark lights up which looked a little
spooky and Lawrence reacted well
to it and then had good panicky reactions
towards DeYoung and Hart.
There's good shot on some creepy looking
sparks on a telephone pole.
We have some good shots on Joey
Lawrence skateboarding and then
looking up at the telephone pole as it
looks suspenseful wondering if he will
crash into anything.
There's a good dialogue between Joey
Lawrence and his brother Matthew
but of course they only play neighbors
which looked nice. Matthew does
well telling Joey the story that
happened to the abandoned house next
door.
There's good shots with Joey Lawrence
going into the abandoned house looking
around and seeing the damaged material
inside along with a nice spooky shot on
supporting actor Charles Tyner
jumping down from a roof and acting
strange towards Lawrence as he
does well acting tense.
There's a good reaction on Lawrence
when Hartt turns on the garbage
disposer.
We have good shots on the inside of
machines with things melting and sparks
showing.
We have a good shot on Lawrence
talking on the phone with his Mom with
concerned expressions begging her to
listen to him which was nicely done.
There's a scene with DeYoung dragging
Lawrence in the house with him
freaking out not wanting to come in which
lacked a little.
There's great reactions on Lawrence
when he is hacking and coughing in a car
in a garage and him panicking trying to
start up the car and smashing into the
garage doorway as it looked incredibly
suspenseful.
We have a good emotional dialogue between
DeYoung and Hartt about
what is happening in their house.
Hartt does well acting emotional
towards Tyner by asking him some
information at the house next door that
the terror happened and asks him what to
do and does well with his answers acting
a little insane in a Crazy Ralph from Friday
the 13th like fashion.
There's a great suspenseful moment with Hartt
trying to struggle getting out of a
shower with hot water attacking her and DeYoung
trying to rescue her and Lawrence
freaking out.
There's also a nice moment with DeYoung
trying not to break into tears towards
Lawrence when he tells him about his wife
in the hospital.
We have a good dark shot on DeYoung
going towards the garbage disposer that's
on and looking at some sharp glass which
makes you wonder if something terrifying
is going to happen.
We also have a good shot on DeYoung
walking down in the basement with some
furnace fire lighting up and a screw
hitting him with a great reaction and
falling down.
We have a good shot on Lawrence
staring at the tv with lines crossing and
hitting his face as he reacts well along
with some ohter terrifying directions in
the scene.
There's a great slow motion with DeYoung
about to fall on the floor where there's
water with an electrical wire and Lawrence
trying to reach his for his hand which
makes you cringe big time.
There's a good reaction with DeYoung
cutting down the telephone pole with a
chainsaw and laughing insanely.
There's some great
deep synthesizer music along with some
high tones as composer Jay Ferguson
truly made it sound spooky for each scene
in the film.
Old
man: It ain't a thing, it's a
signal...... a pulse, kinda like a voice.
So what you've got to do is to get rid of
anything in your house that might have
ears to hear it.
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