HORROR FILM REVIEW: GIRL HOUSE (2015)

Do you ever go into a film with preconceptions, then when after watching the pre-credit scene think "yup i was right, this is going to be a stinker" only to have your opinion changed as the film rolls on?  Well Girl House  might just well do this to you as well.  

I'll be honest here I went into this thinking it was going to be a a poor man's Porkies meets Friday 13th, full of gratuitous scenes of naked women having sweaty sex and getting hacked apart by some masked killer.  Now I'm sure there is a section of you out there who like that sort of thing, and you know what you might actually be disappointed by this film as the titillation is kept to as bare a minimum as possible.

The opening scene that sets up the reason for our masked killer's rampage and slaughter is hard to watch, not so much for what happens on screen, but more for what is implied on screen and what the viewer infers from what they are shown....

Our Killer,known only as "Loverboy"  in the film is shown as a fat kid, is being chased and taunted by two little girls, who then trap him and really taunt him with the good old playground dare of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours".  To which Loverboy does just that he drops his pants to reveal a big pair of slightly off white Y-fronts, but that's not enough the girls want to see more and when he does they burst out laughing, and make fun of his unseen but obviously tiny weeny.  He then runs away, obviously distraught as his following actions are rather over the top.  

My biggest problem with this opening scene is in the way in which it is handle, you may take something else away from it, however I felt that the tone and execution was somewhat off.  It almost felt that it was trying to say that all girls are evil, and that by their constant taunting they have turned a nice boy into a rampaging killing machine.  That it is the girls and not the boy who is at fault for what is to come next.  If they had maybe added a small scene that showed that Loverboy was already unbalanced and a bit of creep then I may have warmed a bit more to the film earlier on.  

Cut to our heroine, all good old all American Girl who has had to resort to stripping on line to help pay her way through College.  Who then gets on offer to move into a house where all the girls are constantly on camera, their every move open for anyone one who wants to sign up to the exclusive and secure website.  It is the ultimate voyeurs house you can watch the girls have sex with any of the boys who are shipped in blindfolded so as to maintain the secret location of the house, but don't worry there is no forced sex, it is completely down to the girls to decide if and when they want to indulge in the sins of flesh.  

I thought I was going to have some serious problems with this part of the film, I'm a bit of prude when it comes to this sort of thing, and to be fair on the whole they handle it pretty well.  They have gone to great efforts to show that the house and website is design to leave the power and choice in the girls hands.  Everything is consensual, the environment is supposed to be 100% safe and secure.  They could have easily gone for a far more sleazy route, but credit must be given to the filmmakers for handling it rather well.  

Of course the house isn't safe, and thanks to a private video meeting between Loverboy and the girls that didn't go the way Loverboy wanted it to go he decides to go on a quest to find the house and seek revenge on those who slighted him.  

This is where the film really takes off, it turns from being an atypical boobs and slash horror film to a rather great homage homage to the slasher genre.  Loverboy even dons a mask, which was part of his rubber sex doll thing that he had in his room.  It's clear that this mask is a homage to Halloween, in fact there are a couple of shots that take their queue from the gold standard of slasher films.  

One of the biggest plot holes in this sort of film is the the one of just call the cops, which this film gets around, by having the house in a super secret location.  Even though our here and his side kick can see the killings unfold on screen they are completely helpless.  It's a refreshing take and gives the film an added sense of dread.  

As for the killings, it was a joy to watch a film that reveled in the use of practical effects. The killings are both gruesome and satisfying, yes we have the same old problems that every single one of these films,  Namely, the "oh we hit him on the head just the once, so let us assume he is dead".  Why do we still have this in films, I know it is used as a plot filler but come on it is tired cliched and just plain stupid.  To be fair though in a scene later on in the film Loverboy does get hos head repeatedly smashed in.  

Where Girl House excels is in the good old fashioned slasher homage, it's not a clever film despite the thinly veiled look at the porn industry and the ethics behind girls using sex as a means to get on in life, but come on did you really pick this film up for and intellectual look at life or did you just want to see some really good kills, all tied together in a decent if not ground breaking story.  

It's not bright, it's not clever and it is not original, but Girl House has enough going for it to keep fans of the slasher film highly entertained for 90 minutes or so.  

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