I was going to watch a different movie from Amazon Prime for this round. A friend of mine on Facebook made a movie suggestion for a movie that is now on Prime that he had watched at a horror movie festival. That was the movie I was going to watch next. Then another friend asked her movie-making friends to post links to their movies on Prime and one mentioned that their movie, Housesitters (2018), is only going to be there a week longer. I'm wasn't sure I could work it in if I didn't watch it right away, so I decided to do just that. I was able to add a bunch of movies thanks to all of this, so that should keep me busy for a while.
Three friends, Izzy (Jamie Jirak), Angie (Annie Watkins), and Rachel (Bethanie Louise), have started a house sitting business. Angie is hired by a guy to take care of his house while he is gone. She calls up Izzy and tells her to bring stuff, but to leave her boyfriend, Zack (Peter Ash), at home. The house is nice and to their surprise, the owner has left behind a credit card and his permission for the two ladies to use it to get food. What they don't know is that this guy isn't telling them everything. There is something else in the house that isn't very friendly.
Housesitters was co-written by Jamie Jirak, Annie Watkins, and Jason Coffman, who also directed. I have always been proud of myself for giving any horror movie a fair chance. I don't care if I know it has bad ratings before watching it, I will give it a shot. I know some people who hear "low-budget" and they will steer clear of it no matter what. Not every low budget film works for me in the end, but at least I didn't look down on it before watching it. Housesitters isn't seeing an average rating that is low so far, but it is a low-budget film. Strike that, it is a micro-budget film. Even so, it has a certain charm about it. Besides being a movie that didn't have much of a budget, it is also more of a comedy than a horror film. We are talking about a movie that uses a hand puppet for a monster that shows up now and then. That should tell you a lot right there. What Housesitters loses in scares, it makes up for it with comedy. I can't say that anything made me laugh hard, but there were plenty of times it put a smile on my face at the very least. The film is just over an hour long, which includes a commercial the girls make for their business and a "trailer" for another film. The commercial opens the film and is kind of funny in a weird way. As the story goes on from there, we learn that Angie doesn't like Zack at all because he ate all of her brownies before she could have any. I was started to wonder about Rachel because she wasn't invited to the house, there was no mention of her outside of the commercial either. This is all explained at the end of the film though. The ending takes an interesting twist with what is evil and if demons are evil or just used for evil things.
There is nothing as far as effects go, not that I was really expecting any. We do get some blood, but not a lot of it. There are some zombies to be found. They don't look any different than they already did though. The acting was pretty good here. One can tell that Jirak and Watkins were into their roles, and perhaps more importantly, they were having fun. They played well off of each other in all their scenes together, which was the majority of the movie. If the stuff during the credits is of any indication, they seemed to adlib at least some of their lines. With the two of them having writing credits, that makes sense. I also liked Jay J. Bidwell. He played his role a bit more seriously, but it seems to work out just fine. Especially when something happens to him that I wasn't expecting.
When I watch a horror movie that isn't much of a horror movie, I try not to knock it for that reason. I will likely bring it up in my review, but if it is a good film, I will still give it a good rating. That was how I felt about Housesitters. It may have been light on horror, but it made me laugh. Any film that can make me laugh, I tend to be good with. I also liked that despite how silly things could get, they took the time to explain things. Why they simply didn't leave the house and where Rachel is at are just two things that get explained. I did wonder why the summoning worked since a letter said a certain character had to die and that person didn't die. Even so, I enjoyed my time with Housesitters. I think it will just all depend on how you fell about such low-budget films before jumping into this one. It isn't great, but it is fun. I hope you get to check it out if it sounds like something you would enjoy as well.
3 out of 5 Can't say that I have a box of porn
Three friends, Izzy (Jamie Jirak), Angie (Annie Watkins), and Rachel (Bethanie Louise), have started a house sitting business. Angie is hired by a guy to take care of his house while he is gone. She calls up Izzy and tells her to bring stuff, but to leave her boyfriend, Zack (Peter Ash), at home. The house is nice and to their surprise, the owner has left behind a credit card and his permission for the two ladies to use it to get food. What they don't know is that this guy isn't telling them everything. There is something else in the house that isn't very friendly.
Housesitters was co-written by Jamie Jirak, Annie Watkins, and Jason Coffman, who also directed. I have always been proud of myself for giving any horror movie a fair chance. I don't care if I know it has bad ratings before watching it, I will give it a shot. I know some people who hear "low-budget" and they will steer clear of it no matter what. Not every low budget film works for me in the end, but at least I didn't look down on it before watching it. Housesitters isn't seeing an average rating that is low so far, but it is a low-budget film. Strike that, it is a micro-budget film. Even so, it has a certain charm about it. Besides being a movie that didn't have much of a budget, it is also more of a comedy than a horror film. We are talking about a movie that uses a hand puppet for a monster that shows up now and then. That should tell you a lot right there. What Housesitters loses in scares, it makes up for it with comedy. I can't say that anything made me laugh hard, but there were plenty of times it put a smile on my face at the very least. The film is just over an hour long, which includes a commercial the girls make for their business and a "trailer" for another film. The commercial opens the film and is kind of funny in a weird way. As the story goes on from there, we learn that Angie doesn't like Zack at all because he ate all of her brownies before she could have any. I was started to wonder about Rachel because she wasn't invited to the house, there was no mention of her outside of the commercial either. This is all explained at the end of the film though. The ending takes an interesting twist with what is evil and if demons are evil or just used for evil things.
There is nothing as far as effects go, not that I was really expecting any. We do get some blood, but not a lot of it. There are some zombies to be found. They don't look any different than they already did though. The acting was pretty good here. One can tell that Jirak and Watkins were into their roles, and perhaps more importantly, they were having fun. They played well off of each other in all their scenes together, which was the majority of the movie. If the stuff during the credits is of any indication, they seemed to adlib at least some of their lines. With the two of them having writing credits, that makes sense. I also liked Jay J. Bidwell. He played his role a bit more seriously, but it seems to work out just fine. Especially when something happens to him that I wasn't expecting.
When I watch a horror movie that isn't much of a horror movie, I try not to knock it for that reason. I will likely bring it up in my review, but if it is a good film, I will still give it a good rating. That was how I felt about Housesitters. It may have been light on horror, but it made me laugh. Any film that can make me laugh, I tend to be good with. I also liked that despite how silly things could get, they took the time to explain things. Why they simply didn't leave the house and where Rachel is at are just two things that get explained. I did wonder why the summoning worked since a letter said a certain character had to die and that person didn't die. Even so, I enjoyed my time with Housesitters. I think it will just all depend on how you fell about such low-budget films before jumping into this one. It isn't great, but it is fun. I hope you get to check it out if it sounds like something you would enjoy as well.
3 out of 5 Can't say that I have a box of porn
