“Someone is inside your house,” and it’s terrifying.
Footballer Jackson Pace (Markian Tarasiuk) is alone at home in the opening scene of this film, just like Casey, and he receives a call that leads to his horrible death.
A call comes in for Casey, a high school girl played by Drew Barrymore.
She looks enchanted by the cryptic voice on the other end of the line, bathed in cameo lighting.
She grabs a knife from the butcher block and slides it back into it as she moves around her pristine kitchen.
But, before the wedding bells can ring, Casey finds herself on the receiving end of Ghostface’s knife. And, because the killer isn’t apprehended right away, it’s virtually a Cold Case (y).
Aside from the silly puns, it’s a memorable opening sequence. One that establishes “Scream” as a classic slasher film.
So it’s no surprise when “There’s Someone Inside Your House,” an adolescent slasher, pulls the same rabbit out of the hat.
Footballer Jackson Pace (Markian Tarasiuk) is alone at home in the opening scene of this film, just like Casey, and he receives a call that leads to his horrible death.
A mask is worn by the killer, who is a rip-off of Ghostface Killer.
But not a creepy one; instead, this killer’s mask is a 3-D printed replica of his or her most recent victim.
As with any teen film, we are introduced to a motley crew that wears its diversity on its sleeve, with a non-binary character, many People of Color, a token poor-little-rich white lad, and eventually, a lesbian youngster.
Jackson’s death comes as a “WTF” moment in the gorgeous hamlet of Osborne, Kansas, where corn and football seem to be the townsfolk’s reasons for waking up every morning.
When spoken in full, the “F” in that acronym probably spells “fresh corn.”
The majority of Osborne’s family attends the football game in which Jackson would have played if he hadn’t been having a Drew Barrymore moment.
We learn as he dies that he is being punished for a hazing ritual gone horribly wrong.
The community goes into whodunit mode when everyone at the game receives a mystery text message with a video clip of Jackson thrashing openly homosexual quarterback Caleb (Burkely Duffield), who scores a touchdown while everyone else is looking at their phones.
However, before the town can officially adopt the name “Sherlock” for all of its residents, additional murders occur, punctuated by jump scares that will make you want to scream (pun intended).
The heinous nature of these deaths prevents any titillating subplot in the form of a romance between Alex (Asjha Cooper) and Rodrigo from developing (Diego Josef).
Death, on the other hand, does not prevent Makani (Sydney Park) and Ollie (Theodore Pellerin) from trading saliva.
However, it’s such a flimsy romance. They are clearly not one to die for, as they both live.
With his dislike for his controlling father Mr. Sandford, Zach (Dale Whibley), the token affluent white lad I noted earlier, offers a potential story twist (William MacDonald). This hatred, on the other hand, does not receive enough screen time to develop into a convincing prefix for crime.
It may have worked as a narrative conveyor belt for Zach’s character growth as a plot device. This development may have had a knock-on effect, making the rest of the cast’s performances more fulsome.
The plot twists even more by requiring a group of teenagers to be themselves, remove their masks, and stop hiding their true selves from one another.
This is a little thin as a morality tale. “Man is least himself when he speaks in his own person,” Oscar Wilde observed. Put a mask on him and he’ll tell you the truth.”
In other words, we all have a tendency to show ourselves when we think no one is looking.
Unfortunately, “There’s Someone Inside Your House” lacks the drive to find its way to the point where it loses viewers.
