Hi, Movie Recaps here.
Today I will show you a drama, horror, thriller film from 2012, titled House at the End of
the Street.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
It is a stormy night and Carrie-Anne Jacobson isn't sleeping.
She sneaks out of her room and walks down the hallway, accidentally bumping against
a lamp that falls to the floor.
The noise wakes her parents up, so her mother comes out to check on her, but Carrie-Anne
attacks her with an ax as soon as she comes closer.
Next, she rushes into her parents' bedroom and kills her father as well before running
away into the forest.
Four years later, Doctor Sarah Cassidy and her teenage daughter Elissa Cassidy move next
to the house of the murders, which can be seen from their window.
Sarah thinks the house is empty, but she's grateful because thanks to it, her own rent
is very cheap.
Elissa goes for a walk in the forest and finds a few abandoned blankets, she also hears some
noises among the trees that cause her to leave.
Later in the evening, Elissa and Sarah talk about her dad over dinner.
Sarah chose to divorce him because he was on the road nine months out of the year, but
she still misses him sometimes.
Elissa needs to get used to having Sarah around, but they both agree the place will be good
for them.
At three am in the morning, Sarah is woken up by some noises from the neighbor's house:
a car has arrived and someone is going inside and turning on the lights.
The next day, Sarah and Elissa meet the neighbors at a potluck.
Sarah asks one of them about the lights she saw and the man confirms the house isn't empty;
the surviving son, Ryan Jacobson, lives there.
Elissa is introduced to Tyler Reynolds, a teenage boy that goes to the school she'll
be going to and organizer of a famine relief program.
During lunch, she asks if Ryan will be joining them, but the neighbors say he won't because
he keeps to himself.
Some of them think he shouldn't live there and the house should be burned down because
it brings down real estate value.
Elissa asks where Ryan was the night of the murders, Tyler tells her he was staying with
an aunt upstate.
Nobody knows what happened to Carrie-Anne - it is believed that she drowned in the dam,
but her body was never found, so some rumors say she still lives in the woods.
When Sarah and Elissa go back home later, Elissa hears some noises in the woods again,
and a shadow can be seen among the trees.
One morning, Elissa plays her guitar and sings on the porch before going to school.
Tyler invites her to his famine relief program meeting, and Elissa initially says no because
she has plans with her mom.
But after Sarah calls her to tell her she's been assigned the night shift, Elissa accepts
the invitation.
When she goes over to Tyler's in the evening, she discovers the "meeting" is actually a
party filled with gambling, music, and alcohol.
A few moments later, while looking for the bathroom, Elissa finds a sick girl on a bed,
Jillian.
She asks her if she's fine and covers her with a blanket, but the girl just gets up
and rushes into the bathroom to throw up, so Elissa decides to sit on the bed to wait
until the bathroom is free.
Tyler finds her there and sits next to her, getting in her personal space to hit on her.
Elissa calls him drunk but he insists and pushes her down on the bed to assault her,
Elissa turns him down again and pushes him off before leaving the house.
The road is dark and empty, there is also thunder rumbling in the distance.
Elissa starts walking home and when a car stops near her, she tries to call her mom,
but she doesn't pick up.
The driver turns out to be Ryan, who recognizes Elissa as his new neighbor and offers her
a ride, but she turns it down.
Just a few seconds later, though, rain starts falling heavily, so when Ryan stops the car
again, Elissa accepts to get in.
After a moment of awkward silence, Elissa asks him how he can live in the house where
his parents got killed, he explains he's fixing it up to sell it.
Ryan tells her he could hear her singing in the morning and that she was good, Elissa
says she used to be in a band and that her dad was a rockstar too.
She finds that Ryan still has cassettes and an 8-ball keychain in the car, that's because
it used to be his dad's.
When she comments on how quiet the area is, he replies his favorite quiet time is dawn,
because that's when he can write.
They arrive at Elissa's place and she says goodbye to him when her mother starts calling
her on the phone, Sarah also starts questioning her as soon as she makes it inside, not liking
it when Elissa explains it was Ryan that gave her a ride.
Meanwhile, Ryan is making dinner that he puts on a tray and takes to a hidden room under
the basement.
When he opens a door at the end of a hallway, he's jumped on by Carrie-Anne, but he overpowers
her and uses a needle to sedate her.
He doesn't understand why she always tries to escape since he takes good care of her,
he also asks her not to bother the new neighbor.
When he leaves the room, he leaves the key in its usual place, which is on top of the
door frame.
The next day at school, Elissa avoids Tyler, who insults her for it.
Jillian comes to sit with her and thanks her for her help during the party, she also introduces
her to her brother Jake and his best friend Robbie, who know Elissa used to be in a band
because they googled her.
There's a Battle of the Bands coming up and they invite her to sing with their band as
they give her a USB stick so she can check them out.
At the hospital, Sarah meets Officer Bill Weaver and asks him about Ryan, wanting to
know if he's trustworthy.
Bill feels bad for the way people treat the boy, he was the one that had to bring him
the news of his parents' deaths.
He says Ryan's aunt was a senile old woman and Ryan was the one taking care of her instead
of the other way around, but she died a year ago.
As far as he knows, Ryan has never gotten into trouble, but the neighbors like to complain
about him anyway.
Elissa goes to the neighbor's house to visit Ryan and take him a CD she's made for him,
she finds him checking out her website because he wanted to listen to more of her music.
She notices he has a baby monitor on the table, kid drawings on the fridge, and way too much
food, he explains that's because he tries to go to town as little as possible.
While looking around the house, she finds a picture of the family and says it must've
been nice to have both parents together.
Ryan tells her Carrie-Anne was the heart of the family and everything changed after the
accident, that's the time he was sent away.
Afterward, Elissa finds Carrie-Anne's room, which looks like it belongs to a little kid
while Carrie-Anne supposedly was thirteen.
Ryan explains she had brain damage from the time she fell off the swings while Ryan was
watching over her because their parents were inside all day consuming drugs, although he
doesn't tell Elissa about that last fact.
When Carrie-Anne woke up she was different, she would attack her family and break things,
that's why there are bars on her windows.
After Elissa leaves the house, Ryan checks on Carrie-Anne, and he's so distracted by
the guilt and the memories he's revisited today that he forgets to lock the door.
While helping her mom make the bed, Elissa tells her she's visited Ryan and she thinks
he's a very sweet but sad boy.
Sarah says she's just trying to fix him, to which Elissa takes offense and causes her
to leave the room.
Thanks to Ryan's mistake, Carrie-Anne escapes and tries to reach the neighbor's house.
Ryan sees her through the window, so he stops writing and goes after her.
The noises Carrie-Anne makes when walking on the back porch alert Elissa, who comes
outside to see what's going on.
She's suddenly startled by someone touching her back, but it's just Jillian, who had let
herself in because the front door had been left often.
After the girls go back inside, we see Ryan has captured Carrie-Anne and they are hiding
nearby.
The next day, Elissa plays for Jake and Robbie and joins their band.
Later in the evening, she discovers her mom has invited Ryan over for dinner.
Sarah asks him many awkward questions while drinking a lot of wine, but when she leaves
the room to get dessert, Ryan still thanks Elissa for being the first person to invite
him somewhere since the murders.
Elissa holds his hand to comfort him but quickly takes it back when her mom returns.
Sarah is worried about her daughter, who is just a high school student while Ryan is a
college boy, so she puts a rule in place: she does want them to be friends, but they
aren't allowed to hang out unless she's there as well.
Elissa obviously dislikes this, but Ryan says he'll respect the rule before leaving.
Mother and daughter end the night arguing over this.
The following day, Sarah tells what happened to Bill, who is very understanding.
Sarah says she knows she can't keep Elissa away from boys, but she doesn't want her to
make the same mistakes she did.
Besides, she knows Elissa just likes to pick the most damaged boy around and make him into
a project, and she doesn't want Ryan to be part of that pattern.
Meanwhile, Elissa is complaining about her mother to Jillian when they come across Ryan.
Elissa had called him there to apologize for last night, then she asks him for a ride,
saying that since Jillian will be with them they'll technically not be alone.
After dropping Jillian at her home, Elissa gets a call from her mom saying she'll have
another late shift.
Sarah had actually called the house, but Elissa has forwarded all house calls to her cellphone,
so her mom will never know she's with Ryan.
They go to Ryan's place and take a walk in the woods, where Ryan shows him a special
tree that looks like a face.
Elissa tells him she likes the way he sees things and kisses him.
They go inside the house to make out on the couch, the noises they make reach Carrie-Anne
through the baby monitor.
She gets out of the bed and finds the lid of a cardboard box, which she flattens out
and slides under the door.
Then, she hits the door a couple of times until the key falls on the lid, so when Carrie-Anne
slides the cardboard back inside, she can grab the key and open the door.
She sneaks upstairs and grabs a knife, Ryan sees her just in time as Elissa is about to
find her.
He kicks Elissa out of the house before chasing after Carrie-Anne, who is now running through
the woods.
There's a couple in a car nearby and Carrie-Anne is about to reach them when Ryan jumps on
her and captures her.
While dragging her to a hiding spot, he covers her mouth with his hand, but Carrie-Anne keeps
on making noises that could alert the couple, so his hold on her becomes stronger.
This, however, makes him accidentally snap her neck and kill her.
Devastated with grief, he puts her body in the trunk of his car then drives away.
After taking care of the body, he enters a diner where he meets a kind waitress named
Peggy Johns, who is wearing a Penn State sweatshirt.
Feeling bad for him, she gives him some cake and milk on the house.
Elissa is on the phone with Jillian telling her what happened, but she hangs up when Sarah
comes over to apologize for how she handled things with Ryan and give her a gift for her
show, but Elissa isn't in the mood to talk to her, so she just gives her short, performative
answers.
The next day, she's practicing with her band when Ryan calls her to apologize and say he
needs to tell her some things later.
Elissa takes the chance to invite him to Battle of the Bands, which he accepts.
After hanging up, Ryan changes the lock of the special hidden room.
Later in the evening, Ryan arrives at the school, where Tyler and his friends make fun
of him.
He enters the building to say hi to Elissa, but they are interrupted when a boy tells
him his car is getting thrashed.
They rush outside and find Tyler and his friends are the ones destroying the vehicle so they
try to stop them, but Elissa is grabbed by one of the boys while the rest of the group
punches and kicks Ryan.
Suddenly, Ryan grabs Tyler's leg, breaks it, then throws him on the floor and steps on
the broken leg before fleeing.
While the bullies decide to go to Ryan's place to wreck it, Elissa finds Ryan's keys on the
floor, so she picks them up and takes his car back to his house.
The boys have started a fire and leave when Elissa arrives; thankfully only the drapes
are burning so far, so Elissa gets inside and manages to stop it before it could get
worse.
While she's taking care of the burned drapes, Sarah calls her.
Tyler had been admitted to the hospital so she heard what happened, Elissa tells her
he had only defended himself against six guys.
After hanging up on her, she finds a box of tampons and another strange box in Ryan's
trash.
At the hospital, Bill defends Ryan from Tyler's angry parents.
Because Sarah has a bad feeling, he promises that he'll stop by her house too when he goes
to check on Ryan.
Meanwhile, Elissa hears some weird noises coming from the basement, which is locked.
After using the keys she found earlier to open it, she goes downstairs and finds out
it's only the washing machine.
But when she's about to leave, she notices the hidden door under the carpet and decides
to go in.
When she enters the room at the end of the hallway, she's jumped on by Carrie-Anne, whose
mouth has been muzzled.
Ryan arrives just in time to save her, he tells her to go upstairs while he takes care
of his sister.
After the camera shows us a Penn State sweatshirt hanging on a chair, we see Ryan sedate Carrie-Anne
and tie her to the bed while telling her Elissa isn't like the others and she will help them.
There's one weird detail, however: one of Carrie-Anne's eyes isn't blue.
Upstairs, Elissa notices a contact lens stuck on her arm.
She opens the trash and confirms her suspicions, the strange box had held a pair of blue contact
lenses; she also finds a wallet belonging to Peggy, the waitress.
Suddenly she's startled by a voice behind her - it's Ryan, who asks her to promise not
to tell anyone about Carrie-Anne.
He also lies and says the wallet is his.
Elissa promise she won't tell and tries to leave, but Ryan hits her to knock her out
and takes her to Carrie-Anne's room.
He doesn't notice her phone has fallen on the floor.
Elissa wakes up tied to a chair while Ryan tells her more of the story: Carrie-Anne had
actually died that day on the swings and he blames himself for it.
This makes Elissa wonder who killed his parents then, but he doesn't answer the question,
he just says that while he does like Elissa, he needs Carrie-Anne.
He can't have both, but he could transform Elissa into Carrie-Anne as he did with all
the other girls he's kidnapped, so he grabs Peggy and takes her with him, leaving Elissa
locked in the room.
While Ryan puts his car in the garage, Sarah calls Elissa and gets the cellphone's answer
machine, making her realize she's been forwarding her calls all this time.
She calls Bill next to inform him of this, begging to check Ryan's house first.
Ryan goes back to Carrie-Anne's room and starts preparing the things to transform Elissa into
his sister.
He says Carrie-Anne's death was his fault and that's why his parents punished him, but
he stopped them.
They hear Bill arrive at the house through the baby monitor, so he goes upstairs to answer
his questions with lies.
Meanwhile, Elissa manages to free her feet from the bindings and kicks a lamp to make
it fall on her arm.
She uses it to burn through the binding on her arm, it also burns her skin but she endures
for the sake of freedom.
Back upstairs, Bill is leaving, but he notices Peggy's wallet and gets suspicious.
So once outside, he calls Sarah's house and gets forwarded to Elissa's phone, which he
can hear inside the house.
Ryan hears it as well, so he grabs a knife and turns off the lights before hiding behind
a wall.
After taking out his gun, Bill re-enters the house and finds the basement door open, he's
about to go in when Ryan jumps on him from behind and pushes him down the stairs.
He is angry with Bill because he has always known his parents were addicts and helped
them cover up Carrie-Anne's death, but never did anything to stop them.
Bill tells him he's always protected him, Ryan responds he's only protected himself
as he repeatedly stabs him.
Elissa has freed herself by the time Ryan returns.
She hits him with the door when he enters the room and locks him inside before running
away.
When she makes it to the basement, she pushes the washing machine on top of the hidden doors,
then is shocked to find Bill's body.
She tries to leave, but the basement door is locked, so after failing to find Bill's
gun on his holster, she goes into the garage.
She isn't able to open the doors there either, and when she gets in the car, there are no
keys so she can't start it, but she does find a box with a piece of cloth and a bottle of
chloroform in it.
Ryan, who managed to escape because he had his keys with him, finds her then and uses
the cloth she found to knock her out.
Sarah arrives at the house while Ryan puts Elissa in the trunk of his car just before
she wakes up and finds Peggy's body next to her.
While Ryan talks to Sarah at the door, Elissa kicks off the cat seats, creating a hole through
which she can get out.
Afterward, she grabs a hammer a breaks the window of the garage door as she calls for
her mom, Sarah hears this and enters the house to look for her.
Ryan stops her by stabbing her.
Elissa returns to the basement through the broken window and hides behind some furniture
as Ryan throws Sarah on the floor.
He's about to carry her body away when he notices Elissa has escaped, so he puts Sarah
down and grabs a knife before looking for Elissa.
He finds her when he hears her trying to move, he attempts to grab her but she kicks him
off her.
Afterward, she finally finds Bill's gun and attempts to shoot Ryan, who hides and turns
off the power.
Luckily for Elissa, she's also found Bill's flashlight, so she manages to see and shoot
Ryan when he's about to jump on her.
After turning the power back on, she approaches his body to grab his keys, but he wakes up
and grabs her wrist.
It's Sarah that saves her by hitting him with a hammer.
Together, mother and daughter escape.
The movie ends with Sarah and Elissa moving out of town and Ryan being confined to a psychiatric
ward.
Through a flashback, we finally learned the final piece of the story behind the murders:
after Carrie-Anne's death, their parents dressed Ryan in her clothes and called him by her
name, they even treated him as if he was the daughter.
It was him who had murdered them for it.