House (R, 2008)

Based on a novel by best-selling Christian authors Fred Dekker and Frank Peretti, House is an astonishingly derivative horror film -- borrowing images, ideas, plot points, and scares from movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Shining, Don't Look Now, and the Saw series. The acting's fairly wooden, and the film's themes of redemption, sin, and salvation are buried under just enough grisly violence that they're more than a little difficult to make out -- or to take seriously. And the contrast between the nice-but-struggling couple (Jack and Stephanie) and the seemingly perfect-but-secretly troubled couple (Randy and Leslie) is entirely overdone. House also feels cheap -- made with bargain-basement effects (with Poland standing in for Alabama) and featuring cardboard characters.

House is a great demonstration of the fact that good intentions don't always make for good moviemaking; character actor Madsen is the biggest name in the cast, and he seems to be sleepwalking through his scenes. Robby Henson's direction is fairly pedestrian -- at one point, he scares viewers by having a chicken flap into the frame -- and the film's final twist is both unexciting and an obvious, weary, dreary set-up for a possible sequel. If your kids are mature enough for horror films, they can watch far, far better ones than House.