‘Hostage House’ Review- Could Have Snoozed Right Through It

This film streamed in 2021.

Dawn’s Light production company brings us the thriller Hostage House, which was released onto Netflix. It is directed by David Benullo and written by Daniel West.

Susan (Jennifer Taylor) is a widow and a real estate agent struggling to tell her daughter, Heather (Julia Terranova), that she is selling the family home. Her boss Paul (Richard Neil) has her run an open house on a fancy home that sits on seventy acres. Once the open house has ended, Heather arrives to take Susan to dinner, only for them to be taken hostage by a pair of criminals Keith (Justin C. Schilling) and Natalie (Emily Sweet), who did a job that went wrong. With the two desperate to avoid capture by a growing police presence, Heather and Susan must fight to stay alive.

Every step of the way is predictable and boring. The characters are uninteresting, the plot is not compelling, the criminals are not intimidating, and the story is one I have seen over a thousand times. This is the kind of content one finds on Netflix these days, sadly. Sure, it is not the worst movie ever made, even this year, but it was not even mediocre.

As a fan of thrillers and crime dramas, the premise intrigued me, but there seemed to be no attempts at originality at all. Even the actors seemed to be coasting through it. I could have snoozed right through it with no problem whatsoever.

The script did not impress me either. The crooks kept yapping their gums about how life is unfair and that they deserved to pick off the rich people. Blah. Blah. Blah. With the writing was so bland, I honestly could not tell if they were trying to make you empathize with the criminals or if you were supposed to see through the excuses. Whatever the case may be, it did not help the film’s case.

Bottom line, Hostage House felt like filmmakers just hit the “default” switch on all of the creativity. Every situation felt bland and unoriginal without any sense of urgency. Give it a pass.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Strong foul language, Terror, Some bloody violence

FAVORITE QUOTE: Even thieves have a code of honor.

Check out the trailer below:

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