Girl House

Girl House
File:Girl House poster.jpg Film poster
Directed by	Trevor Matthews Jon Knautz
Written by	Nick Gordon
Produced by	Trevor Matthews Nick Gordon Cory Neal
Starring	Ali Cobrin Adam DiMarco Slaine
Cinematography	Christopher Norr
Edited by	Matthew Brulotte
Music by	Tomandandy
Production company	Brookstreet Pictures
Distributed by	Entertainment One
Release date	October 16, 2014 (2014-10-16)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English

Girl House is a 2014 Canadian horror slasher film directed by Trevor Matthews and written by Nick Gordon. It stars Ali Cobrin playing a woman in an X-rated reality web series and Slaine as the psychopath who stalks her.

Plot

In Rehobeth, Alabama, 1988, two girls trick an overweight boy, whom they nickname Loverboy, into dropping his pants and preparing for a kiss, only to tease and humiliate him. When one of the girls rides home alone later, Loverboy knocks her from her bicycle, then throws both her and the bicycle off a bridge. Kylie's first striptease captures the attention of Loverboy, a Girl House regular. Also watching are Alex and his college roommate Ben Stanley, who recognizes Kylie as his kindergarten crush. Former Girl House participant Anna, banned for her heroin addiction, returns to the house and begs Gary for another chance. Kylie has a private chat session with Loverboy, who surprises her with a picture of his face. Anna later finds the picture while snooping on Kylie's laptop. Ben pursues Kylie and they begin a relationship, which continues after he admits to knowing her involvement with Girl House. The women in Girl House are annoyed with Loverboy, who continually asks for Kylie, and start making fun of him. They put his picture with a handwritten caption that reads "What a stud" on the bulletin board. Kylie takes down the picture as soon as she sees it. Eventually, Loverboy snaps. He breaks into the place housing the website's server and kills the technical team. Gary is strapped to a chair and stabbed multiple times. Dying from blood loss, Gary is forced to watch Loverboy's rampage unfolding at the House. Loverboy kills Steve at the security gatehouse, then strangles Anna. From his dorm room, Alex watches in horror as Loverboy mutilates Devon's face with a small knife and chops off all her fingers with an axe. Alex alerts Ben, who calls 911 and tries to warn Kylie but in vain, as Loverboy jams incoming and outgoing communications. Ben instructs Alex to try locating Girl House's address. An oblivious Kylie retires to her room. Meanwhile, Loverboy kills Heather and her boyfriend while they are having sex. Janet, who witnesses Loverboy severing the boyfriend's head, is chased down and thrown off an upstairs railing. She survives with broken legs. Loverboy locks Mia in the sauna room. She escapes to the pool outside, only to be killed with a sledgehammer. Kylie spots Loverboy at the pool from her window and realizes she is in danger. Janet unsuccessfully attacks Loverboy and gets stabbed in the head. Kylie finds Kat and tries to hide in her bedroom. Loverboy breaks in and corners Kylie, who now recognizes him. Kat knocks Loverboy briefly unconscious and goes for help while Kylie looks for Devon. Kat meets Big Mike at the front door, but Loverboy pursues and kills them both. Kylie finds Devon and tells her to stay in her bedroom while she searches for help. Distraught over her disfigurement, Devon suffocates herself with a plastic bag. Ben, together with Kylie's friend Liz Owens, finds the house's real address and races there. Loverboy chases Kylie throughout the house. She shuts off all of the cameras. She then lures Loverboy to a darkened basement where she uses a video camera's night vision to help her stab him in the stomach with a pool stick. Injured, Loverboy overpowers and begins to strangle her, but she ends up clubbing him to death with the camera.

Cast

• Ali Cobrin as Kylie Atkins
• Adam DiMarco as Ben Stanley
• Slaine as Loverboy
  • Isaac Faulkner as Young Loverboy
• James Thomas as Gary Preston
• Chasty Ballesteros as Janet
• Alice Hunter as Kat
• Alyson Bath as Devon
• Elysia Rotaru as Heather
• Nicole Fox as Mia
• Zuleyka Silver as Anna
• Erin Agostino as Liz Owens
• Wesley MacInnes as Alex
• Camren Bicondova as The Queen

Release

Girl House played at the Ottawa International Film Festival on October 16, 2014. Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack by tomandandy on February 10, 2015, and Entertainment One released the film to video on demand on February 13, 2015.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 73% of 11 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.58/10. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Director Trevor Matthews stages the violent mayhem with admirable profiency, and the film's target audience is bound to come away reasonably satisfied, if not fully satiated." Maitland McDonagh of Film Journal International described it as a "formulaic but slickly executed thriller that should entertain undemanding genre buffs". Michael Gingold of Fangoria rated it 2/4 stars and wrote of the film's satiric content, "Too often, though, the moviemakers fall back on grisly, gamy sensationalism." Pat Torfe of Bloody Disgusting rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "Boasting some strong acting from almost everyone involved, coupled with a scary antagonist and some genuinely brutal moments that gorehounds will love, Girl House is definitely one of the stronger slasher films I've recently seen." Scott Hallam of Dread Central rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "For a directorial debut, Trevor Matthews does a fantastic job. The movie is slick looking, nicely paced, and keeps the audience's attention at all times." Brian Formo of IGN rated it 7/10 stars and wrote, "It's an imperfect debut, but it shows promise."

External links

• Girl House at IMDb
• Girl House at Rotten Tomatoes