Emily Alatalo | Through the Shattered Lens

Years ago, Kathy Waters (Emily Alatalo) escaped from her abusive husband, taking her young son Noah with her. Now, Noah (Sam Ashe Arnold) is a senior in high school and a talented composer. The school band even plays one of his compositions at a football game and everyone in the stands applaud. It reminded of those old episodes of Degrassi where Marco would write some overwrought performance piece and all the students would respond by going, “Yeah, Marco!”

Unfortunately, Kathy and Noah are not getting along as well as they used to. They’re fighting and arguing constantly. Kathy is overprotective. Noah is …. well, Noah’s kind of a creep. Noah is always complaining about how his former best friend Ethan is now more popular than he is. (Ethan plays football. Noah …. composes orchestrual music. You do the math.) Ethan is mad because Noah is now going out with Ethan’s ex-girlfriend, Maddie (Tori Barban). At one point, Tori has to duck into a bathroom so she can throw up. This is a Lifetime film and that means you don’t throw up unless you’re pregnant and trying to keep it a secret.

Kathy is a real estate agent. That’s not a surprise as selling houses is right up there with owning a bakery or being a mommy vlogger as far as careers in Lifetime movies are concerned. One morning, she gets a notification that someone has entered one of the empty houses that she’s selling. Going to the house, she discovers the remains of a wild party. She also finds Ethan dead in a nearby shed.

Noah becomes the number one suspect. Soon, someone is spray-painting “MURDERER” across the front door of Kathy’s house. Kathy’s friends are refusing to talk to her. Detective Summers (Puja Uppal) is asking questions. Noah claims that he’s innocent but even Kathy begins to have her doubts after she discovers just how angry Noah can get. Noah’s father was abusivie. Did Noah inherit the violence gene?

As I mentioned earlier, Noah is kind of a creep and it is easy to imagine circumstances in which he could be guilty. The fact that Lifetime has lately featured several films featuring violent teenage boys also might lead one to suspect that Noah’s the killer. Well, fear not. This is a traditional Lifetime film and that means that Noah is not the murderer. Instead, he’s just an obnoxious teenager who needs to treat his mom with more respect. I will not spoil the movie by revealing the identity of the killer. That said, you should be able to guess who it is because there’s not that many people in the movie.

“Everyone Has Something To Hide!” the title announces and, as far as this film is concerned, I guess that’s true. Considering that Noah’s a musician, they could have made just a few adjustments to the script and called this movie While My Guitar Gently Weeps. As for the film itself, it suffers from a lack of likable characters. (When I say that Noah’s a creep, I mean he is really a creep!) But the film does deserve credit for fully embracing the melodrama. The film has it’s flaws but it still held my attention for 88 minutes.

One night, a college student named Brandon died.

While two sorority pledges painted his face and then posed for selfies with his unconscious body, Brandon choked to death on his own vomit. The pledges were named Corey (Sarah Booth) and Elaina (Kimberly-Sue Murray) and when they were put on trial for manslaughter, they claimed that it was just a prank gone wrong and that the other members of the sorority put them up to it. Of course, no one was willing to back up their stories. Instead, the president of the sorority, Jacqueline Gill (Katherine Barrell), just went on television and said that she hoped the two would ask God for forgiveness. Corey and Elaina were convicted and sent to prison.

Two years later, Corey and Elaina have been released and now they’re looking for revenge. However, a simple revenge will not do. Elaina is an engineering genius and Corey … well, Corey’s just really angry. They’ve set up an elaborate haunted house and they’ve sent a private invite to each member of the sorority…

Two girls seeking revenge for a sorority prank gone wrong sound like either the set up for a Lifetime movie or the world’s worst Lime-a-rita commercial. (“So, this happened: we thought we were going to a haunted house but then it turned out we were actually being invited to our violent doom. Yep, it was a Lime-a-rita night.”) However, The Scarehouse is neither. Instead, it’s a rather grisly horror film with a streak of extremely dark humor.

But is it any good?

Let’s start with what works. Both Sarah Booth and Kimberly-Sue Murray give very good performances as the two girls. Even when the script lets them down, Booth and Murray keep the movie from dying. The film actually does some interesting things with the two characters. It keeps us guessing about which one of them is really the driving force behind the whole revenge plot. No sooner do you think that you’ve figured out their power dynamic then something will happen or words will said that force you to reconsider what you previously assumed.

Though I had a hard time believing that such an elaborate death trap could have been designed by just two people, the haunted house was a memorable and creepy location. It was full of atmosphere and the promise of doom. If I ever found myself in there, I’d probably be scared.

Finally, you always have to admire a horror film that doesn’t shy away from pursuing things to their darkest conclusion. Once one enters the Scarehouse, there is no escape and everyone’s worst nature will be exposed. There is no exit and Hell is other people.

At the same time, I’ve grown tired of movies that feature lengthy scenes of people being tortured. After nearly two decades of Saw films and Hostel rip-offs, whatever shock value those scenes may have once had are gone. The tortures in The Scarehouse are elaborate and sadistic and thoroughly unpleasant to sit through. A girl with an eating disorder has her corset tightened until she literally splits in half. A forced pillow fight leads to corrosive chemicals eating away at flesh. Some of it is clever but, far too often, these scenes go on too long. There’s only so long you can spend watching someone being tortured until you mentally check out.

As well, The Scarehouse uses a nonlinear time line. In between the scenes of Corey and Elaina getting their revenge, we see flashbacks to the prank that led to death of Brandon. But, since we already know what happened because it’s all Corey and Elaina ever talk about, there’s not really anything new to be discovered in the flashbacks.

Obviously, my feelings about The Scarehouse are mixed. I was pretty dismissive immediately after I watched it but the movie has definitely stuck with me. It has its flaws but it also has two memorable and frightening performances. Watch at your own discretion.