Director/writer Omar Rogers slow-rolls a tense ramp-up to horror in House on Hill Street. The film opens on a kindly suburban homeowner named Gwen (Kellie King) opening her door to allow in a young woman who says her car broke down. A gunman also takes the house, and Gwen begs him not to harm her. After his partner robs the house, the man shoots the homeowner. The murder is brutal, and the two leave Gwen dead in her own home.
Some time later, the house is rented to two couples, where they spend their vacation days drinking, playing cards, and smoking weed. The party goes nonstop until they begin to have encounters with the ghost of the murdered woman from the robbery. De’Andre (Malcolm Montgomery) feels a hand on his back in the kitchen. Janiyah (Neidra Bartley) sees Gwen’s bloody apparition in the bathtub. Mysterious shadow silhouettes appear in darkened rooms. The longer the foursome stays, the more disturbing the visitations of the bloody phantom become.
At first, the couples behave contrary to Eddie Murphy’s joke that Black people would never stay in a haunted house like the one in The Amityville Horror. While the White family in that movie remains despite paranormal activity, Murphy suggested a black family would leave upon hearing a ghost say, “get out.” In House on Hill Street, even after experiencing multiple instances of apparitions, spectral touches, and voices, they are reluctant to suggest cutting the vacation short. De’Andre dismisses what he’s seen as a side effect of alcohol and drugs. His solution is to roll out of bed and grab a beer. De’Andre is serious about partying.
“Janiyah sees Gwen’s bloody apparition in the bathtub.”
Rogers creates much with little in this horror thriller. The budget was minimal, which led to everyday sets such as the house, restaurants, and other unremarkable locations. The performances are adequate, but not particularly exciting. While the soundtrack builds the right mood for the scenes with various R&B and Rap snippets, the sound quality for dialogue is lacking. There is a great deal of ambient noise, and sometimes the dialogue is difficult to hear. The film leans into the psychological aspect of a haunting, focusing on the reactions of the victims versus endless jump scares. There’s a puzzling scene that doesn’t fit in the movie in which Iris (Naomi Williams) interviews for a job, but it is a complete non-sequitur, contributing nothing to the arc of the story.
The film has no traditional plot, per se, but rather is more of a dark amusement ride as the psychodrama plays out. The viewer rides along on a visit to the scary, literal haunted house. At a tight 60-minute runtime, the action picks up quickly, and the frights keep rolling out until the end.
Breaking Glass Pictures specializes in genre films, usually low to no-budget, and distributes them globally. They provide a friendly home base for Indie filmmakers getting started, or those working with few resources, and have distributed over 500 films. They have made their place in the world of cinema as “passionate advocates for the independent filmmaking community.” What these films, like House on Hill Street, lack in polish and expensive production quality, they make up for in ambition and vision.
"…has no traditional plot, per se, but rather is more of a dark amusement ride as the psychodrama plays out."
