Jennifer Lawrence Stars in "House at the End of the Street" (2012)

House at the End of the Street attempts to create a new slasher film franchise and hopes to capitalize on the upcoming Halloween season in order to make that happen. Time will tell if that comes to pass, but I am not sure if the initial installment will be successful enough to sustain a series. The film centers around Sarah (Elizabeth Shue) and Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) Cassidy, a mother and daughter who are looking for a fresh start. However, the house they are renting is located near a home where two people were murdered years earlier. While Sarah was told the house was vacant, she soon learns that it is, in fact, occupied by Ryan Jacobson (Max Thieriot), whose parents were murdered by his younger sister, Carrie-Ann, after he had been "sent away."

Elissa comes to meet Ryan after leaving a party early and is intent on walking home, until it begins to rain. He offers her a ride and she reluctantly agrees. The two teens grow close and a relationship, of sorts, is formed, much to the dismay of Sarah, who wants to protect her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. Indeed, there is friction between mother and daughter that causes Elissa to rebel. After a series of missteps, Ryan and Elissa try to patch things up and have some success until Elissa learns that Ryan is keeping someone locked away in the basement of his home. Initially, Elissa believes that it could be Carrie-Ann, who was presumed dead years earlier, but not everything is as it appears to be. As a result, Elissa soon finds herself fighting for her life.

Jennifer Lawrence is a terrific young actress and she is able to elevate the material here with her believable performance as a teenage girl who is determined to do things her way, but does not yet have the life experience to make the best decisions. Despite a yawn inducing first half with few genuine scares, when Elissa's life hangs in the balance, I cared enough about her to want to see her survive. Elissa's predicament helps to build the suspense and, with a few surprise twists, the second half of the film is superior to the first half. However, the performances in general are weak and many of the characters are stereotypical. As a result, I did not shed any tears when several of them met untimely fates.

The technical aspects of the film, including the cinematography, lighting and overall atmosphere help to set the appropriate foreboding tone, but something else is missing, perhaps with the screenplay or the direction, or both. Even if House at the End of the Street becomes a commercial success, will Jennifer Lawrence be willing to return for future installments? With The Hunger Games trilogy off and running, I doubt it, and without her, this effort could have been truly horrific.