The premise of this movie I really enjoyed, the execution not as much, but at least it was better than The Open House.

Hostage House follows a woman who is conducting an open house on a property she is hoping to sell, when a couple arrive after hours and force her into the home and hold her hostage while the area’s being searched for them after a robbery gone wrong.

This woman’s daughter has also turned up at the house due to her mum not coming home and the two have to fight for their survival against these two people who, under the surface of them being murderers, actually have some heart.

I really liked the premise of this movie. The thought that a couple just turned up at a house that isn’t even this woman’s and hold her hostage until they can escape is really interesting, plus the fact that usually if you’re in your own home you have some advantage of understanding the layout and your exit points, whereas in this home, while she understands the house because she has shown it to people, it is still a new house that she does not know like the back of her hand.

Later in the story they try to incorporate a twist into it and while it was an interesting plot point I didn’t have a huge amount of interest in it. To me it made it stand out from other movies that have done a similar story to this one, however it was still quite underwhelming and while I did enjoy watching it, I didn’t connect with these characters on any sort of level, and so did not understand why I should care so much about the situation they were in.

One of the intruders has a deeper storyline to him and that does make it in some ways more interesting because he has a lot more of a moral dilemma. He clearly has been coerced into the situation that he too doesn’t want to be in and it’s quite interesting to see him battle within himself and what he should do in the situation. If he lets these people go he will be done for this robbery gone wrong, but if he doesn’t then is his life worth risking theirs?

Spoilers ahead.

I personally wouldn’t recommend this movie just because it didn’t have that intrigue and depth that I enjoy with these sorts of thrillers. These movies really need to give you time to understand the characters and who they are and what their situation is, especially if they want to make them a little complex, and having that missing really does make you wonder why you should even care about what’s happening. The ending as well left a sour taste in my mouth, I know the whole point is that she is in prison so cannot keep her baby and you should feel I guess happy that she isn’t allowed to be happy, but at the same time it just felt a bit wrong to me and I didn’t enjoy watching it.

End of spoilers.

What do you think of Hostage House?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding