Review: Girl House

I'll be honest and say that I wasn't expecting much from Girl House, in fact the only reason I has any interest in this film lead actress Ali Cobrin who I've developed - what I guess you can call - a small obsession with following American Reunion. However in the days leading up to its release I started hearing some good word of mouth about the movie, more so from genre sites than mainstream reviewers and I thought maybe I had prejudged the movie and decided to check it out. Man was I wrong about this, Girl House was never going to set the world on fire but what it did deliver was a fun little violent and sexy throwback to 80s slasher set in a modern world.

Following the sudden death of her father and the loss of her family's main source of income, college hottie Kylie Atkins decides to help with her tuition costs and her mother's care by taking an offer to work for a company called 'Girl House' a webcam service that does things differently by housing a number of young women in the same building and allowing their members, not only to chat with the girls during cam sessions, but also the view them throughout the house at all hours of the day, the intended result being a deeper connection with the girls and a more likely outcome of them willing to spend their money. Kylie is more or less welcomed into the house and after getting over the sudden open sexuality of everyone involved, she quickly becomes a big hit for the site, much to the surprise of Ben Stanley, an old school friend of Kylie who carried a flame for the sweet but innocent girl he remembered.

One of the most infamous members of Girl House that Kylie comes across is a man known only as 'Loverboy', a sad individual but generally harmless, Loverboy has formed a connection with each of the Girl House members and takes a special liking to Kylie due to her sweet disposition. However when Loverboy hacks the Girl House server to send a picture of his face, some of the other girls make a joke out of him, which isn't the best idea because not only is Loverboy a computer genuis, he's also fucking demented. Quickly finding the house, Loverboy sets out to commit brutal and bloody revenge on the girls, making a show out of the killings on the live cams throughout the house, as Kylie and the girls try to survive the night, Ben and his roommate Alex try to find a place that is specifically designed to be hidden.

The movie is mostly set-up leading into the murderous final act but it's set-up that works, it shows us the type of person Kylie is and builds a relationship with her and Ben so we understand why he needs to save her and why we should care if she lives. But more than that, the film sets up the house and shows us the inner-workings that help explain how Loverboy is able to get away with so much killing before anyone starts to notice people are dying. It's not the most original of plots but the webcam service angle gives it a very modern update to the classic slasher formula and the themes of voyeurism in regards to both sex and violence make this a little smarter than the average crazed killer movie.

Characters were a mixed bag, if there's one major issue with this film it's that the other girls in Girl House don't get enough time to fully establish themselves which is a shame because the film does introduce each of them individually so we can get a quick look into their personal lives. Kat is the friendliest of the girls and helps Kylie get settles into the house, her girlfriend Mia seems to be along the same lines and doesn't judge the horndog guys that jerk off to her and Kat because it's just a show and all harmless.

Heather and Janet are both the wild ones of the group, Heather more so due to her affinity for sex toys and a little of the ol' bite and tickle while Janet was content to do her thing and keep herself happy entertaining the horny businessmen that made up her core audience. Both had their moments and provided a large majority of the open sex appeal that made up this movie but both needed more time.

Final girl of the house and queen bee wannabe was Devon, one of the hottest commodities of the house, Devon not only knew she was hot shit but relished in that fact, loving the attention that she got, however once fresh-faced Kylie jumps onboard Devon's role as top of the house gets put under threat. It almost looked like they were going to include a jealously subplot which would've been a great addition, with cameras on all the girls 24/7 and the need to maintain a friendly image to each other to keep the illusion of a sexy girl-on-girl mentality to the members, putting in a passive aggressive slice of girl rivalry might have been a nice little plot point. Sadly it's not meant to be, none of the girls are bad and for most of the film you'll like a majority of them or at least see them as having potential for great characters - Kat and Devon could've been great if they were given the right tools to work with - but the film never allows them enough time to fully develop, instead treating most of them like naked meat-sacks waiting to get fucked or killed.

Christ almost sounds intentional when I say it like that.

The film wasn't all a Vag-Fest, there was a few male characters in there. Gary Preston, the owner and manager of Girl House sets himself up as a creepy perv using his money and entrepreneurial skills to trick hot young women to get naked, however a nice little character twist shows that's the not the case and if he also didn't fall into the underwritten category like the Girl House Girls then that would've been an interesting avenue to go down.

Ben Stanley plays the guy who could be the gallant hero if he was actually at the house. Ben's actually a good character, he's the typical childhood crush guy that's carried a torch for Kylie while she barely noticed him and it's only by happenstance and a horny roommate that he finds her on Girl House. However where Ben differs is that he honestly doesn't care, in fact he openly admits to knowing about Girl House just to get it out in the open and not worry about it becoming an issue later. He's a good guy that genuinely cares for Kylie and while he can't do much once the killings start but he does as much as he can in order to help. He's helped along by his roommate Alex who starts off as a horndog but when he inadvertantly finds himself on the wrong end of the worst private chat session ever he becomes a much more involved and often very funny character, some of the funniest moments of the film come from him reacting to the messed up shit he's watching.

Final male member is Loverboy played by Slaine (who you might recognise from Gone Baby Gone or The Town). No offence to Slaine but he has the look of a slightly dumb, down-put guy that's had no luck and a ton of issues surrounding women, in fact the film opens with a very harsh scene which explains one of the reasons why he's so traumatised by female encounters as well as the origins of his name. What's clear from the get-go, Loverboy is mentally troubled, things he says and does don't feel right, he gets angry way too easily, he's already fantasising about violence before he snaps and once he does he become a terrifying machine of death and mayhem. He's a great villain primarily because he has the build and ferocity of a slasher killer, he's this hulking mass of anger and quite scary at points but he's also very smart, maybe not socially smart but he's able to work computers to his advantage, and considering he's attacking a house near enough made of computers, safe to say ball's in his court for the majority of the film.

And rounding out the cast, Ali Cobrin as Kylie Atkins, Cobrin does a really good job at making Kylie a strong but likeable heroine, she's obviously the sweet and innocent one however she's not so sweet and innocent that webcam porn is above her. She does have some trepidation going into the house and is a little taken aback by how open everyone is with their sexuality but once she's done her first dance - scored very nicely to Jesse Rhode's Let It Be Known I might add - she finds a taste for the thrill of sexual freedom and comes to understand why so many women do this line of work. She's not naive though and even when Ben admits that he's seen her she knows the cultural stigma may end up hurting her - which is why she never tells her mother despite primarily doing it for her. All these elements of her character add together in only the first part of the movie to showcase a regular but very likeable young woman who finds herself in a precarious but oddly enjoyable circumstance and follows her from there, you fall for her before Loverboy attacks and once he does you're rooting for her and watching her take some very clever steps towards self-preservation like smashing cameras and using the house layout to her advantage. She's a great final girl and if I wasn't already head over heels with her this would've probably cemented me as a fan.

First time director Trevor Matthews manages to make a pretty damn good movie out of this, like I said it's never going to set the world on fire or reinvent the genre but for what it is, it's a hell of a lot of fun and knows exactly what it is. There's a good pace to the film, it runs for a little over 100 minutes which is enough to set up the film and the characters while leaving a good amount of time for a bloody finale, I've been calling this a slasher film and that might be pushing it, nothing violent really happens until the final act which may sounds dull but it's a clever move since it gives us the chance to get to know Kylie and the line of work she's found herself in, the set-up is important as once we understand the house and the people inside then the film is given free-reign to do as it pleases since we've already gotten invested and from there on out it's a blood-bath.

I'll fully admit this is not the most violent movie I've ever seen but it has some nice gory moments including a sawn-off head, a broken back, a crushing mallet to the skull and attacks using, but not limited to, hammers knives and dildos. The film lets its nasty streak run wild once Loverboy comes into play and it's often quite violent acts he hits with, not just because of the murder and blood involved but just the general ferocity in which he attacks the girls with, it's enough to make Jason get a little worried. So yeah, it has some nice kills that somehow manage to tear your eyes away from the heaps of lovely female flesh that surround the film - and quick side note, Nicole Fox who plays Mia is a strong rival against Ali for Hottest Body, wow. Now say what you will about horror films resorting to sex and violence to engross an audience, this film is made with sex and violence as it's bricks and mortar, yes it's possibly gratuitous but it acts on two fronts, firstly to engross it's audience but secondly to add in a little theme of voyeurism that holds an underlying theme throughout the movie. Not only does every girl in the house watch the other girls perform through their own devices that allow them to view the live cams but they do so with an almost casual enjoyment, as if watching one of their housemates get rammed by one of their guest is something akin to watching a show on Netflix. This is then brought back when Loverboy attacks and he's the one using the cameras to check up on where the girls are, in some ways it's a representation of our modern culture's obsession with sex in all it's cheapest and easiest forms and the ease of which Loverboy is able to turn the very tools the girls use to make their living against them mirrors the way proper hackers can use technology against a person and reveal their secrets to the world.

Or maybe I'm looking too much into it.

I didn't expect Girl House to be as good as it is, yes it has it's problems, the majority of the cast is underwritten despite strong potential and if I'm honest once the killings starts it's a little too quick between each death but even with those flaws the rest of the film is surprisingly strong, the story has a great set-up and takes a modern outlook on the slasher genre, the key members of the cast are great with Loverboy being a ferocious villain and the living Ali proving a sweet and capable final girl and it's directed with a sense of fun to include lashings of violence and nudity but that also knows it's a horror film and adds an underlying theme of voyeurism that brings out a very real terror. Yes it's not a perfect film but not every horror film needs to be The Exorcist, sometimes all you need is a little flick that gives you tits and gore and ass and blood and that's what Girl House delivers, a fun film for fans of the genre looking for something modern and good.

8/10