House at the end of the Street (4 Stars)

This is a film that was a box office success despite being slammed by the critics. I have to side with the public on this one. It's a competently made film.

A doctor, Sarah Cassidy, and her 17-year-old daughter Elissa move into a house on the outskirts of a small town. There's a back story which isn't fully explained, but I think I can piece it together from the clues. Elissa hardly knows her mother. It seems that her parents were divorced many years ago and she grew up with her father, but her father has recently died. The mother, despite her serious profession, has a history of sleeping around, which she's trying to put behind her now that she's finally being forced to act like a mother.

The road where they live is a dead end, and they live at the end of it. The house next door is occupied by Ryan Jacobson, a college boy whose parents were killed by his sister. The sister was never found after the murder which she committed for no apparent reason. Ryan is an outcast in the town, as if people blame him for his parents' death. Elissa befriends Ryan, not knowing he has a dark secret. He's protecting his sister by keeping her locked up in the cellar so nobody can take her away.

It's a well written scary movie with an original plot. There should be more films like this.