About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Ambitious and intelligent at the cost of any thrills or action.



Pros

• Ambitious
• Intelligent

Cons

• Slow pace
• Too much dialogue, too little action
• Some overacting

Description

• Starring C. Thomas Howell, Corbin Bernsen, Ken Arnold, Jeff Wincott, Eleanor Drew, Richard Fullerton, Beth Harvey
• Directed by Robert Stephens
• Rated R
• DVD Release Date: August 23, 2011

Guide Review - 'House of Fallen' DVD Review

In House of Fallen, three storylines play out amidst the backdrop of a battle of good versus evil in which a group of twelve humans are ordained as hunters of malevolent fallen angels (the Grigori, or "Watchers") who have had it out for Man since, well, forever. In one tale, an ex-priest suffering from a crisis of faith is asked to perform an exorcism on a man possessed by an evil entity. In another, a gang of criminals are holed up in a spooky house inhabited by...an evil entity. Finally, a man is recruited by a mysterious individual to join the battle versus "the fallen."

House of Fallen is an ambitious, smart film -- two adjectives not often used for horror movies. Unfortunately, it's probably too smart and ambitious for its own good, consisting of a 90-minute stream of dialogue broken up by the occasional action. I hesitate to use the phrase "action scene," since that would imply any level of kinetic activity beyond a torture scene and a gun shot or two. There's a lot of macho buildup -- overly serious threats and proclamations about good conquering evil and vice versa -- but no payoff.

Still, it's easy to see how writer/director Robert Stephens could attract high-profile names like C. Thomas Howell and Corbin Bernsen to such a low-budget pic; its cerebral content and multi-layered script is admirable.

That said, it needs more balance with lower-brow content (action, gore, scares), especially if it wants to draw in horror fans -- as the cover artwork certainly implies. It actually plays as much like a drama as a horror movie -- albeit with supernatural characters -- but even as a drama, it becomes a little too convoluted, with too many characters, too little connection between the storylines and too many references that seem to strive for biblical accuracy but end up burying the plot in academic minutia. Stephens does a solid job as director, lending a cinematic flair to the proceedings, but with such a listless, drawn-out script, there's only so much that can be done behind the camera.

The DVD

No special features.

Movie: C-
DVD: F



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