Tucked in nicely on a Monopoly board featuring Stephen King-like edifices like the Overlook Hotel and Rose Red is Andrew David Barker’s homicidally haunting The House on Lidderman Street. Which is an address that stinks of dread, but for demons, it’s all about the convenience of the location.
That’s right, I said demons. For there may indeed be more than one at the aforementioned address. Luckily, The House on Lidderman Street is between occupants, except for a young apprentice builder named Pete Arrow (Jason Adam).
Pete has been having a cold run of cards. His longtime girlfriend Lucy (Lyndsey Craine) has left him after a bitter act of unfaithfulness involving another woman, his life and confidence are crawling at the bottom of the karzy, and above all that, his boss and co-workers are award-winning jam rolls, large portion, yes.
They bicker with and verbally batter the young man into ever-increasing levels of internal rage and overwhelming private agony. That’s when the thumping comes. Very faint and shrill when Pete first hears. But hear it, he does. Something is moving about above stairs, and unlike E.T., it doesn’t come in peace with kindness and flowers.
Indeed, the unseen resident of the house at Lidderman is far from pleasant. It stirs and stares at those, perhaps foolish enough, to remain within. Just long enough to give it time. Time to take hold of your mind, followed by your will, followed by everything else.
“A raft of unfortunate visitors interrupt young Arrow…”
Barker summons the energy of John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness as he wields the atmospheric terror with the controlled grace of a conductor’s baton. Keeping what might slip into predictability fresh, with twists and reversals which surprise and confound to the point, you’ll be screaming at the scream, “GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!”
It’s a phantasmagorical fright-fest in store as the depths of the mystery of the spook upstairs come apart just long enough, for more question marks to be thrown up, as a raft of unfortunate visitors interrupt young Arrow, being courted by the supernatural while working for crap wages on a Saturday.
Kudos to Mr. Adam, who is strong as our unwitting, but not wholly unwilling, leading man, and special mention to the excitingly eccentric and a Get Out classy turn by Phil Molloy as the nosey neighbor with a secret, Jed Fisk. Having observed Mr. Barker’s progress from his early features and shorts, along with his stunning array of literary works, I must say it is a privilege to enjoy the evolution, along with this sterling entry to a body of work that shall garner great attention, eventually. Mark my words.
In summation, The House on Lidderman Street stands, not merely as a testament to the hard work and ingenuity of indie film-making displayed by all involved with the production, but as a single-location, spooky little souvenir from a stay at an abode only a severely disturbed individual would characterize as home sweet home.
"…atmospheric terror with the controlled grace..."
