Model House movie storyline. For a horror/thriller about a bunch of vapid models thrown into a house together forced to join their non-existent wits to survive, Model House, in theory, sounds like a blast for the correct subset of viewers. Movies in this genre with simplistic premises thrive or die at the mercy of their cast and director, where leaning into the ridiculousness often nets the best results.
Unfortunately for Model House, only about half the cast feels like they are not phoning it in, and writer/director Derek Pike has little interest in exploring anything about these characters other than their hot bodies. Only one single character gets even the slightest modicum of development; when the final girl can be spotted from a mile away, the fun at hand becomes decidedly less so. Without the willingness to play with its silly premise and a lack of engaging kills, Model House should be torn down and rebuilt with better parts.
The recent death of supermodel Bella Baylor takes the world by storm. How could someone with over two million followers be taken from us so swiftly? Model House opens with Bella’s abrupt death, seeming to emphasize that it will play into the larger whole eventually. Not long afterward, we meet our ditzy cast. The only one worth noting has significantly less followers than the others, is very shy, and has an alcoholic drunk for a father:
Zoe (CoryAnne Roberts, America’s Next Top Model). She meets up with several other models at a house deep in the woods, secluded and rather inviting for home invaders. Model House briefly plays with the social media angle and the emptiness that comes with trying to maintain the most followers. Unfortunately, Derek Pike confuses the incessant sounds of incoming DMs with giving an actual commentary on what these social media vices mean in the long term.
The tone frequently shifts throughout, taking far too long for anything of merit to actually occur. Before the home invaders with the eerie Infinity Pool-esque masks, two other boys pop by the house to distract the models from their social media obsessions. Trudy (Kyra Santoro) has her ex-boyfriend, Steve (Randy Wayne, Hellraiser:
Judgment, The Haunting of Molly Hartley), show up, promising to be a new and improved version of the man she previously knew. Hottie neighbor (Ryan Merriman, Halloween: Resurrection, Final Destination 3) comes to complain about the noise the models are bringing to the neighborhood in the hopes that they will keep it down for awhile. By the time Model House gets around to masked invaders holding the girls at gunpoint, more than half the runtime has already been explored.
Model House (2024)
Directed by: Derek Pike
Starring: Scout Taylor-Compton, Chris Zylka, Cory Anne Roberts, Kyra Santoro, Hailee Keanna Lautenbach, Natalie Nootenboom, Priscilla Huggins Ortiz, Randy Wayne, Ryan Merriman, Triana Browne
Screenplay by: Derek Pike
Production Design by: Burns Burns
Cinematography by: David Keninger
Film Editing by: Chris Patterson
Costume Design by: Heather Carey
Art Direction by: Cyearah Hoursey
Music by: Nicholas Pike
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Shout! Studios
Release Date: April 6, 2024
Views: 26
