Why did Netflix's The Open House turn out to be 98 minutes of nothing but disaster? Explained

The Open House is a 2018 American horror movie, which despite having a good storyline and lead characters, failed to capitalize on its potential and turned out to be a complete disappointment.

The movie premiered on Netflix on January 19, 2018, and had a great cast that included Dylan Minnette, Piercey Dalton, Sharif Atkins, Patricia Bethune, and Aaron Abrams. Yet their characters come across as incredibly naive, failing to recognize a serious issue before it gets out of hand.

The Open House follows the story of a mother (Naomi) and her son (Logan), who, following the death of Logan's father, come to stay at her sister's home in a small town. It is quite a big house, open for sale with several open houses, and while everything seems normal, soon they notice a series of strange occurrences.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely the author's.

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Why did Netflix's The Open House turn out to be a fail?

The Open House is the perfect example of a film that is built around misleading clues and false leads.

In the Netflix Original, The Open House, Logan (Dylan Minnette), observes that the idea of "open houses" is peculiar. He notices how several strangers prowl around your house when you're not home. The realtors are too preoccupied trying to put up a nice front to keep an eye on every visitor, or, even worse, whether they all depart when the showing is done for the day.

Co-written and co-directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, Logan and his mother Naomi (Piercey Dalton) find themselves in horrifying circumstances while living in Naomi's sister's magnificent mountainside mansion.

Logan in The Open House (Image via theopenhouseofficial@Instagram)

Every Sunday, there is an open house for the home that is for sale. Strange things start happening after the initial screening. In the end, it doesn't matter who or what is at fault—what matters is their motive, which is still unknown.

The answer to the suspense becomes even more absurd when individuals begin dying in the last 10 minutes of the absurdly long ninety-eight-minute movie. The "twist" is that, well, nothing else in the movie matters at all.

The identity of the unseen killer is revealed to be exactly that—an unseen killer. The movie's last-minute reveals that there is a random guy who goes around to open houses, stalks the residents and kills them with no reason or relation to them.

In addition to the movie's abundance of clichés, Logan and his mother have a terrible communication problem. Granted, they are both going through a difficult time grieving the loss of a loved one, but there are many dubious decisions made by the characters that are just not acceptable.

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The Open House plot

Logan's father dies in a terrible accident, and our two main characters are essentially evicted from their house. Logan and Naomi, who are struggling financially, are allowed to stay in the opulent house on a mountainside owned by Naomi's sister, until they can recover.

The house is for sale, with a Sunday open house. However, strange things start happening after the initial screening. Logan finds the things he keeps are being moved, and Naomi also finds the basement pilot light turning off by itself, adding to the suspense in the film.

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On a final note, Netfilx's The Open House is a 98-minute waste of time, an anti-climax that leaves many unanswered questions unanswered. So if one is expecting an intriguing take on serial killer/supernatural horror with a capable lead—as one would typically anticipate from a Netflix original in this genre—they will unfortunately not find any.