horror movie review girl house (2014)

GAMES, BRRRAAAINS & A HEAD-BANGING LIFE

Horror Movie Review: Girl House (2014)

Girl House opens back in 1988 where we see two young girls teasing an overweight boy. They call him ‘Loverboy’ before getting him to drop his pants in the hope of getting a kiss. They end up laughing at him which leaves him humiliated.

Later the leader of the two girls is cycling home alone when Loverboy knock her off her bike. She face-plants the metal bridge in hilarious fashion. Hurt, she begs forgiveness from the little lard-arse but he kicks her off the bridge killing her.

The movie then switches to the present day. Kylie Atkins (Ali Corbin) is joining an online porn service called Girl House. She’s the obvious final girl from the moment she is introduced. A wholesome character she is only agreeing to take part in the Girl House project to pay her way through college since her father died.

Girl House is a paid for service that sees a group of women living inside a house 24/7 filled with cameras. The girls go about their lives in the house while stripping for the camera & offering ‘extra’ services for a price. It’s a pretty sleazy set-up dressed up as a professional job. It also makes little sense, the shows are in no way X-rated. In fact often they wouldn’t even be called soft-core porn.

Kylie’s first dance in front of the camera sees her keep her boobs covered & wearing pants. It’s implied that she gets massive viewing figures for this. I mean, really? The same people who are willing to pay for this have the internet at their disposal. Any & all hardcore pornography, whatever the imagination can come up with. Why would they bother with this tame stuff?

The only argument in favour of the Girl House set up involves a select group who are likely to fall in love with the girls & keep tuning in for that reason. The adult Loverboy (Slaine the rapper) is one of this select group. Upon seeing Kylie in the house he becomes dangerously obsessed with her.

Being a nice woman she compliments him & is very kind to him in private chats which leads him to believe that she is his perfect woman. He finally gets comfortable enough to send her a picture of himself which one of the other girls takes & hangs up with a mocking message.

Loverboy sees this message on one of the cameras & flips out, insulted & believing Kylie to be ‘just like the rest’. His day job is as a computer technician so he hacks the Girl House website & finds out where it is. Loverboy does not mix well with others as the girls of Girl House are about to find out.

Girl House requires you seriously suspend your disbelief to really enjoy it. The Girl House project itself is one thing. However the ease & way in which Loverboy is able to hack into it & control almost everything from his phone is downright absurd.

That aside it’s a fairly entertaining watch. The acting is decent & Loverboy is a character that you really don’t have any sympathy for. That one incident as a child may have turned him into an obsessive loner but that doesn’t mean he needed to don a cool looking mask & go on a murderous rampage.

His rampage is by far the most enjoyable part of the movie. Sure, he moves like a cat for a man his size & can somehow disappear & reappear in the same room within a second but he’s an intimidating fellow. He has no issues with dealing out some serious damage to the girls, cutting faces, chopping off fingers & locking them inside saunas with the heat turned up.

He’s by the far the best thing in the movie as Kylie is just too much of a character we’ve seen time & time again in horror. The movie regularly slows down to show some of her life outside Girl House. Her time at college & the interactions with her boyfriend are very slow.

There is an undercurrent of a serious message throughout the bloodbath that occurs once Loverboy arrives at the house. It’s basically about the dangers of the internet & porn in general. Thankfully it’s not shoved in your face or anything but it is there.

Oh & if you’re working for a porn web camera business best try to keep it as impersonal as possible.

A disappointing ending caps off a throwaway slasher horror. It will entertain but leave you feeling unsatisfied (kind of like logging onto the actual Girl House website in the film!).

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Girl House (2014)

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Film review: girl house (2014).

Dan Kappa 02/28/2015 Uncategorized

A beautiful young college student needing money for tuition moves into a house that streams content to an X-rated website. One of the “devoted” fans turns psycho after he hears the girls’ true thoughts and feelings about him and invades the house with deadly results.

Director: Trevor Matthews Writer: Nick Gordon Stars: Ali Cobrin, Adam DiMarco and Slaine

Kylie Atkins, played by the homely Ali Corbin, needs money. Her dad recently died and her mother can’t pay the tuition fees Kylie is accumulating. To make ends meet Kylie sees no other alternative than to work for GIRLHOUSE, a supposedly untraceable, unhackable, and unintruderable house that streams, 24×7, the daily and x-rated lives of the girls living inside the walls.

The story moves quick to get Kylie to the house. After an intro hook of the antagonist, Loverboy, as a kid and his, well, “destructive tendencies”, we go straight to Kylie who has already made the decision to join Girlhouse. I must admit, I was happy to see this part handled so quickly. It sets the story briskly and doesn’t bog us down.

The writers try hard to paint Kylie in a good light despite the career she chooses. She doesn’t dress or act like a slut and is only taking the job for the money to get through college… Just like every stripper who ever stripped… Hell, they even try to make the owner of Girlhouse likeable. He’s so accommodating, I’d even let my wife work there if it were real (and no killer would go there). The girls have almost free reign; the choice of what they want to do/show and how they would do/show it. This works well for Kylie who doesn’t want to have sex with “Johns” but only wants to flash her cha chas to the webcam. On a side note, the writer even made the owner gay. Not sure why that was important to the script but the briefest of scenes shows this and my assumption was that the writer felt that it made him more likeable somehow. He’s only exploiting the girls for money, he doesn’t want to tap them. He’s a nice guy!

At the house we meet the other female residents/fodder and their prime customer, the now adult Loverboy (played by Slaine). He is a computer whiz (gee, I wonder why…) and likes to Photoshop images of himself with the ladies at different landmarks. Once he gets a squiz at Kylie, his wall of creepiness is quickly changed to just pictures of her and himself. Someone has a cruuush… Someone has a cruuush.

Kylie’s love interest, and ultimately a complete waste of script, Ben (played by Adam DiMarco) joins the foray as an ex schoolmate who had a long lasting crush for Kylie. The two obviously hit it off and date to the non-event of the story as a whole.

Deep into the film we are introduced to an even bigger waste of script. An ex-Girlhouse girl who sneaks into the house to join the ragtag group once more. This character’s sole purpose is to trigger Loverboy’s killing spree and move the script into Act 3. This could have VERY easily been handled by any other member of the house.

Anywho, the girls expose their true feelings for Loverboy, amazingly all in the same scene, and he doesn’t like it, especially as he thinks Kylie feels the same way too. Loverboy tools up with a handyman belt and a tool chest and heads for GIRLHOUSE with sinister plans of a sinister nature.

“But Mr. Caps, how can Loverboy go on his killing spree if the Girlhouse is untraceable, unhackable, and unintruderable?” You obviously weren’t paying attention to the review, were you? Loverboy is a computer whiz, so he can hack anything. He even has an app on his phone which allows him to control all the cameras, doors and anything else controllable at Girlhouse. And here I am unable to even get my garage door to open on the first button press of its remote…

So, by this point we are around fifty-seven minutes into the film with little suspense, thrills or kills. We’ve been treated to several scenes of Loverboy breathing hard and staring intently at either his monitor or wall of creepiness, and that’s pretty much it in terms of anything horror related. For those keeping score, we’ve only had one death thus far and that was in the intro.

Once we get to Act 3, which is almost 35 minutes worth, it’s non-stop death. Even with his overweight physique, tool belt and metal tool chest, Loverboy is one silent, Ninja-rific mofo. He can sneak into rooms unheard, stand in corners unseen and chase fit woman with ease. All of the deaths are streamed live, and once Ben’s P*rn addicted friend sees the mayhem, he immediately tells his chum who races to try and find the location of Girlhouse and save his girl.

Will Ben find the location and get there in time, or will Kylie have to use her own wits and resourcefulness to defeat Loverboy?

GIRLHOUSE is a professionally shot script. Lighting, camerawork and sound was engaging and nearly flawless. Apart from the needlessly long script, lack of thrill, suspense or kills for most of the story and a pretty basic plot line, the script was serviceable. I was never completely bored, nor was I ever completely engrossed.

Any nudity and sex was handled well by the writer. It’s not overly graphic, nor is it plentiful. There was just enough to service the world and story created. Sure, teens gaging for boob shots will get their rocks off, but this is not a titty-fest by any means.

Characters, for the most part, were fleshed out well. Kylie was solidly created in a very short time. Even the girls in the house were given distinct personalities though their sole purpose was to be sacrificed to the god of slash. In a script like this it would have been easy to stereotype the female characters, but kudos to the writer for approaching this more professionally. Ben’s character ultimately was a waste of script pages and screen time. If he was completely removed from the script, only the smallest of change to one scene would’ve been required to let it run its current course. That is the ultimate mark of an unneeded character and a pet peeve of mine.

The acting from all, regardless of their screen time, was professional and believable. Even the young actors in the intro were fantastic. I was impressed by their performances given the intense nature of the later part of the scene. Slaine’s features leant well to Loverboy. His lack of emotion (until he cracks it) was creepy and brooding and his ability to convey so much without dialog was impressive.

If I were to use one word to describe GIRLHOUSE, it would be “serviceable”. It’s nowhere near Scream in terms of story, characters and entertainment, nor is it suspenseful or thrill inducing like Halloween , the film it tries to emulate. It can’t compare in terms of kill ingenuity to the likes of the Hatchet and Friday franchises, nor is it gore-laden like them either. GIRLHOUSE is simply a serviceable effort and nothing more that will disappear into the ether with the myriad of serviceable attempts in this genre.

2.5 out of 5 webcams

Tags Adam DiMarco Ali Cobrin Alice Hunter Alyson Bath Elysia Rotaru Girl House Girlhouse Nick Gordon Slaine Trevor Matthews

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Yay. Great new review Dan.

Thanks mate!

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Girl House (2014)

• User Reviews
• The killer is a sadistic psycho, pushed over the edge, and hellbent on having his revenge. The mask was a little Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but after so many of these films, they're bound to run out of masks that look threatening. He did remain a near-invincible threat until the end of the film. And while the opening may have generated some understanding into his tendencies as a murderer, it doesn't make him sympathetic and thus the anti-hero title that falls on some slashers.
• The heroine is the "wholesome and virginal" girl who outsmarts the killer. Though the film's subject matter keeps her from being the typical final girl in it's exact definition, she's like-able and enjoyable to watch.
• The rest of the cast are the typical, expendable stock characters that you expect to die but with a few new traits(as this film is 2014, not 1984): the lesbians, the main drug addict being a female(and heroin instead of pot), the additional characters witnessing the massacre take place via the internet. Some of the reactions were genuinely funny.

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Girl House (2014) Horror Movie Review

“Girl House” (2014) is a Canadian horror-thriller that delves into the dark side of internet culture and the dangers of voyeurism. The film, directed by Trevor Matthews and written by Nick Gordon , follows Kylie Atkins, played by Ali Cobrin , a college student who joins a live-streaming X-rated website to pay for her tuition. The premise sets up a modern-day slasher narrative that is both a nod to classic horror tropes and a commentary on the perils of digital exposure.

The movie begins with a backstory that is all too familiar in the horror genre: a young boy is humiliated by his peers, setting the stage for his transformation into the film’s antagonist. Fast forward to the present day, and we meet Kylie, who is struggling financially and sees an opportunity in “Girl House,” a seemingly secure and anonymous service that caters to paying subscribers. The security of this digital haven is compromised when a deranged fan, known as Loverboy, hacks into the system and discovers the location of the house, leading to a night of terror for Kylie and the other residents.

“Girl House” excels in building tension and providing a claustrophobic atmosphere as the characters are trapped in a location that was once considered safe. The film’s cinematography, handled by Christopher Norr, effectively captures the eerie ambiance of the house and the sense of being constantly watched. The soundtrack, featuring songs performed by Slaine, who also plays Loverboy, adds to the unsettling mood of the film.

The performances are solid, with Ali Cobrin delivering a convincing portrayal of a woman fighting for her life. The supporting cast, including Adam DiMarco and George Carroll, provide depth to the story, making the characters’ plight more engaging for the audience.

One of the film’s strengths is its self-awareness. It doesn’t shy away from the clichés of the slasher genre but instead embraces them while still offering a fresh take on the concept of the “final girl.” The movie also touches on themes of privacy, consent, and the consequences of online actions, which are increasingly relevant in today’s digital age.

However, “Girl House” is not without its flaws. Some critics have pointed out the predictability of the plot and the occasional lapse in character logic. Moreover, the film’s portrayal of women and the adult entertainment industry has sparked discussions about the objectification and victimization of women in horror films.

In the Nutshell

“Girl House” is a film that manages to be both a tribute to classic horror and a modern take on the genre. It offers enough scares and suspense to satisfy horror fans while also prompting viewers to think about the implications of our interconnected world. While it may not reinvent the wheel, it is a well-crafted piece that deserves a watch, especially for those who appreciate the slasher genre with a contemporary twist. [4 out of 5 stars]

If you already saw this movie, help us rate the movie by click on the Star Rating.

Genre: Slasher

You can watch on: 

• DVD/BlueRay

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Where to Watch

Ali Cobrin (Kylie Atkins) Adam DiMarco (Ben Stanley) George Carroll (Loverboy) Alyson Bath (Devon) Elysia Rotaru (Heather) Chasty Ballesteros (Janet) Alice Hunter (Kat) Wesley MacInnes (Alex) Erin Agostino (Liz) Nicole Arianna Fox (Mia)

Jon Knautz, Trevor Matthews

A beautiful young college student moves into a house that streams video to an X-rated website. After a deranged fan hacks the site and finds out where she lives, she spends the night fighting for her life.

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Spotlight: “Girl House” (2014)

A modern slasher classic.

by Thakgore Mar 3, 2017, 10:00 am 0 Comments

Hello there fellow denizens of the dark, it’s Thakgore and today I bring you a look at what I honestly believe is the best original slasher that I’ve seen in the last 20 years. I know that sounds like high praise, and it is, but I really feel it’s deserved. So for this edition of Spotlight we are going to spend some time inside the….

First things first let’s get something out of the way. I’ve noticed that horror fans, even me, tend to indulge a little too much in nostalgia when considering many of the “classic” slasher films. While many deserve all the praise they get some of them are just downright bad. Movies like “Madman”, “Curtains” and even the seminal giallo classic “Twitch of the Death Nerve” are not great films when looked at objectively. Compared to even the most mediocre of today’s horror offerings they can’t hope to compete. The reason I bring that up is to bring some clarity to the situation when I say that I think “Girl House” is on par with many of those “classics” and is perhaps in the upper echelon of slasher films usually reserved for icons like Jason, Michael, and Freddy. It’s that good.

Released in 2014 with little fanfare, “Girl House” was directed by Jack Brooks himself, Trevor Matthews and stars Ali Cobrin as Kylie and rapper Slaine as the killer “LoverBoy”. The film begins by ticking off the most important box of  the slasher movie formula. Something bad happening in the past that gives the killer his motivation. Usually in slashers this would be the sole scene exploring the killer’s psyche. Not in “Girl House”. There are several other scenes that focus on the killer’s sad and lonely life. LoverBoy is a complex and tragic character who is artfully portrayed by Slaine. He has compelling reasons for doing the awful things he does and because you understand him it makes for a more involved narrative than what many slasher films attempt.

The other pillar of this film is the lead actress Ali Cobrin. Her turn as Kylie represents, possibly, the best final girl since Sidney Prescott. Kylie has taken a job at a “cam girl” house to make ends meet while trying to pay her way through college. While this is a familiar story Cobrin brings just the right amount of reservedness to the character so that it doesn’t feel too cliche. Kylie is smart, strong, capable and determined and all of these things are portrayed admirably by Cobrin. She soon becomes the obsession of LoverBoy who annoys the other women in the house by asking for Kylie constantly, even when she’s not there. When one of them gets insulted by this she tells LoverBoy off and bans his IP from the Girl House servers. This enrages him and he proceeds to don a creepy mask, grab a toolbox and sets out for the Girl House intent on making them pay for his humiliation.

What follows is about as smart a slasher film as you can ask for. The killings are brutal and the way tension is achieved is particularly original. You see, the house is outfitted with fifty cameras so that the women’s every move can be observed online. This leads to several times when the killer can be seen by someone watching the stream while remaining unnoticed by girl on camera. One particular scene actually had me on the edge of my seat which doesn’t happen often. Each of the women in the house is given just enough character development so that you genuinely feel bad watching them be picked off by LoverBoy. This is something most slashers completely fail at but “Girl House” pulls it off almost effortlessly. It also has a climax that left me breathless and then made me actually stand and applaud.

I think my favorite thing about this film is the fact that it breaks as many slasher conventions as it pays homage to. By allowing the characters to make smart decisions and giving depth to the killer, director Trevor Matthews infuses the movie with the kind of stakes usually reserved for the best examples of the sub-genre. From its traditional start to its non-traditional end “Girl House” is one of my favorite slasher films of all time. I can’t heap enough praise on it and I hope I’ve convinced you to give it a try. You won’t regret it.

“Girl House” is available for streaming on Amazon Video .

Ali Cobrin Girl House Slaine Trevor Matthews

Horror fan since childhood. Also, a stay at home Dad, layabout and general rapscallion. Purveyor of all things diabolical, devious and dire as well as loquacious lover of ludicrous alliteration and bold balladeer of bellicose buffoonery. Master of the run-on sentence.

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Girl House (Movie Review)

Evan slead's rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ director: trevor matthews | release date: 2015.

Sometimes trying to reinvent a genre can be a daunting and seemingly pointless task. When it comes to slasher films, there have been countless attempts to reapproach the "Ten Little Indians" type set up with an unknown killer waiting in the wings to pick them off one by one. Despite most of the films being copycats and cash grabs, there have been a handful that don't attempt to reinvent but still leave a positive impact on viewers. Director Trevor Matthews and writer Nick Gordon took several of the winning pieces to slasher films and crafted them into their own updated version on the classic subgenre.  Girl House is a provocative look at exploitation in the modern age and how it effects the typical slasher killer. With great pacing, intelligent plot decisions, and bloody good fun, this film takes the past and creates an instant classic for the modern viewer. 

Kylie (Ali Cobrin) is trying to manage the recent death of her father and pay for school. Not wanting to worry her already fragile mother, she decides to answer the call from an internet entrepreneur Gary (James Thomas) with a tantalizing business offer. "Girl House" is his revolutionary attempt to take the porn industry and class it up. The idea: a mansion filled with cameras and young women residing in it to perform sexual desires for viewers on the "Girl House" website. Kylie joins Gary's group of girls and quickly becomes the sites latest hit. One avid member, Loverboy (Slaine), instantly feels a connection with Kylie that he just can't shake. Meanwhile, young Ben (Adam DiMarco) recognizes Kylie from school and decides that this would be the time to finally confess his crush for her. Kylie does accept Ben, but after Loverboy comes on too strong, the mystery viewer decides to make her notice him. Since he can't have her love, Loverboy dons his best slasher get up and decides to pay all of the girls a visit.

A premise about a porn house filled with young women screams surface level and typical slasher, but the film ends up undressing and revealing the brains surging underneath.  Right from the start of the film there is a sign that developing characters was a focus for writer Nick Gordon. The first scene introduces viewers to the young "Loverboy" as he's teased by two young girls. Feeling rejected and humiliated, he attacks the antagonistic girl with no remorse which reveals that Loverboy is harboring some deep evil. This was a nice set up for the killer to show his need for acceptance from women, as well as his fear of being sexually frustrated. Many of the other characters, including the lead Kylie, have more layers than the typical slasher film. Many of the typical set ups used like jump scares or false attacks are shown but then quickly dropped to leave the viewer guessing what could happen next. The idea to have the attacks centered in a house filled with cameras felt reminiscent of  Halloween Resurrection , but  Girl House took the issues of that film and made them work. Instead of making the cameras a gimmick, director Trevor Matthews utilized the different angles and online viewers to create interesting dynamics. There's even a scene where the camera becomes the POV of the viewer and has a nice found footage feeling. The biggest boost is the killer with his drag queen-esque mask that looked like a mixture of Leatherface and  Alice, Sweet Alice . He has a fantastic presence and attempts different ways of killing victims to keep the bloody fun up and boredom factor down. 

Overall  Girl House is a solid rehash of the past with some updates on the slasher film. Using the online world as the means for a killer to do his dirty work but also as a means for the victims to fight back was a brilliant choice. Looking at this film from an objective view may leave some with a negative pre-judgment on what to expect, but those that enter inside will find a great ride with a little something to offer for any horror fan.

Staff Writer

Evan is a Film & Media Studies major in Boston and the host of PodSlash podcast. He loves writing novels and screenplays, and also all things Real Housewives. Don't hate.

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Film Review: GirlHouse (2014)

July 9, 2015

• 6 mins to read

“Whilst very much a back-to-basics slasher effort, GirlHouse proves itself to be a consistently entertaining ride”

In order to make enough extra cash to see her through her university studies, student Kylie signs up to be the latest addition to the roster of online fap-fest “GirlHouse”. The site itself is a members only voyage of voyeurism, whereby subscribers can spend their time viewing the daily (and nightly) activities of the house’s smokin’ hot female residents, and spend money treating themselves to X-rated private chats and cam shows. So far, so 21st Century.

Things generally go well upon Kylie’s arrival – her fellow residents proving to be a (for the most part) friendly and accommodating bunch – and it isn’t long before she comes across a particular regular of the site who uses the avatar of Loverboy. Played with a surprisingly malignant flair by rapper-turned-actor Slaine, the rotund and withdrawn Loverboy is a cable-wrangling IT professional by day, basement-dwelling shut-in by night – and he appears to be dangerously obsessed with the girls whom he spends his every free minute staring at through his computer monitor. He doesn’t take it kindly, then, when his trust is betrayed by Kylie not only being unavailable for some planned private time, but also by her sharing a photograph of him with the other girls.

This slight won’t stand, and so Loverboy tracks down the location of the titular home and, using his IT smarts, infiltrates and takes control of the high-tech building in order to give viewers a show the likes of which they’ve never seen before.

Whilst very much a back-to-basics slasher effort, GirlHouse (titled Girl House in the US) proves itself to be a consistently entertaining ride. Ali Cobrin shines as the reserved, but realistically-minded Kylie, while writer Nick Gordon wisely avoids heading down the road of introducing the kind of unwarranted, wanton bitchiness one would expect in an attempt to create drama within the house – because when Loverboy shows up, these girls have more than enough drama to deal with. The cast and crew behind the offerings of the fictional GirlHouse website are a generally bubbly and likeable lot, even if they remain predominantly broadly drawn in terms of characterisation. It’s enough to get by on before the carnage starts, adding to the film’s inherently easy watch.

Also contributing to this easy-going feel is the film’s refusal to objectify its female protagonists. Though the nature of their jobs may do that, GirlHouse’s lens does not – it never feels exploitative of its cast and, for the most part, avoids throwing explicit nudity or sex around with abandon. What it does have is a nice injection of good-natured humour, and enough blood and brutality in the final act to satisfy all but the most demanding of slasher fans.

Though Loverboy himself is certainly a formidable and intimidating presence, the awfulness inflicted on his quarry rarely lands with gravitas, even when it’s being watched by suitably horrified online viewers. The film tends to lack a true sense of danger and fear, which is largely down to the paper-thin characters. A solid example of this is the inclusion of a subplot involving an ex-resident of the house who returns out the blue, having previously been fired due to her erratic behaviour (stemming from a heroin addiction).

Her return (and acceptance, given her claims of now being drug-free) is abrupt, and the character serves to offer very little to the story from that point until her inevitable demise – nothing more than a little extra meat shoved into line before the grinder. The same can pretty much be said of another subplot involving Kylie reconnecting with an old school friend, the flame of love beginning to burn between them, only to see him desperately try, with the aid of his roommate, to locate the GirlHouse and rescue Kylie before Loverboy gets his hands on her. It fails to really amount to much, which perhaps works – at a big stretch – on a female empowerment level, but leaves the core narrative operating on little more than the most basic.

But then again, that’s hardly a fatal flaw when these problems are so capably backed up by maintained entertainment value – something that GirlHouse does just fine with. It’s never boring, it’s very well presented and professionally pulled off by everyone involved (both in front of, and behind, the camera). GirlHouse is a by-the-book slasher flick with a modern spin but, thankfully, completely devoid of the post-modern irony that has plagued the subgenre since Wes Craven’s Scream . It comes in, does its job in delivering the unpleasantries, and even chucks the soggy tissues in the bin for you on the way out.

Can’t complain too much about that.

GARETH JONES

Director: Trevor Matthews & Jon Knautz Starring: Ali Cobrin, Adam DiMarco, Slaine, Alyson Bath Certificate: 15 Release date (UK): DVD 20 July 2015

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Girl House Reviews

Flawed across the board, its objectification of women permeates every corner of the project, making it a difficult and disgusting watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 12, 2023

It's a bit predictable and the characters are very unrealistic but kind of like the fact that it has an interesting subject matter... and mind you this movie has a really good production value so it's not bad to look.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Apr 30, 2021

[G]enre fans eager for a film to inject some retro-influence into an original modern slasher are likely to see something they like in Girl House.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 23, 2019

Girl House finds the pleasure of horror in these women's painful encounter with their masked on-looker - and for the ultimate self-referential viewing experience, this is best watched as video on demand.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2015

The film fully embraces its love of blood and gore with some stellar practical effects work that serves to heighten the horror.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 20, 2015

Director Trevor Matthews stages the violent mayhem with admirable profiency, and the film's target audience is bound to come away reasonably satisfied, if not fully satiated.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2015

Girlhouse is just another nudie horror flick at first glance, but a strong finale finishes things off with a bloody, satisfying moneyshot.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 16, 2015

Girl House is an impressive first feature for Trevor Matthews. For a slasher film, there is suitable attention to detail and a reputable level of respect for all the characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 14, 2015

Neither sexy nor scary, this low-budget horror movie aims to shock viewers with its revelation that the online porn industry isn't as secure as it seems.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2015

It's a welcome throwback to slashers of yore, with a premise reminiscent of the Sorority House/Slumber Party Massacre films.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 13, 2015

For all its au courant posturing, Girl House doesn't even cut it as old wine in a new bottle.

Full Review | Feb 12, 2015

Puts the porn back in "torture porn." Pity the parents of these pretty young actresses.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 10, 2015

Builds to an intense final act that pays off everything its established about the house and the girls. It has a great riff on the classic 'look behind you' moments of horror movies. It takes Scream to the next level.

Full Review | Oct 22, 2014

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GirlHouse (2014)

Don’t let the trashy neon UK cover art fool you, Girlhouse may be going straight to DVD in this country but it’s one of the best horror movies I’ve seen so far this year.

After the sudden death of her father, student Kylie Atkins desperately needs cash to finish her studies and support her mother. She reluctantly decides to move into the Girlhouse, a luxury mansion house with all mod cons, wired with over 50 cameras which stream live to an X-Rated website. The more subscribers watching your antics, the more cash you make. Morally, it doesn’t sit well with Kylie but she has no other option. She proves immediately popular with subscribers but a misunderstanding sees deranged lunatic Loverboy turn up at the door with an axe to grind!

This film from the team behind both Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer and The Shrine is a lot of fun. From its shocking opening sequence (featuring Camren Bicondova who is now a young Selina Kyle/Catwoman in Gotham) until its satisfying conclusion, Girlhouse delivers the goods. For starters, the cast are good with Ali Cobrin (who you’ll recognise from Bad Neighbours, American Reunion & The Hole) making a very likeable and sympathetic final girl as Kylie and that’s just for starters. There’s a lot going on here character/relationship wise. There’s conflict with Kylie and her flatmate, who doesn’t agree that her only option is to ‘flash her vertical smile’ for cash online, a burgeoning romance with old classmate Ben, who is hiding a secret and tension with one of the other girls, Devon.

The film looks great, every penny of the budget is accounted for on screen and there are so many clever nods to other horror movies throughout from Halloween to Texas Chain Saw to The Strangers to REC that there’s no mistaking this film was made by horror fans for horror fans. There’s even a great score by Tomandandy! What’s not to love?

Well, I will say that there are a couple of moments that stretch credibility beyond belief. Whilst most of the deaths are suitably gory and one is preceded by a corking jump scare, one is absolutely ridiculous and whilst I get the intent, I can’t believe the filmmakers went through with it. Tonally, it didn’t sit well with the rest of the film and I personally thought it was a huge mistake. I also wasn’t sold on the killer’s mask. He ended up looking like a cross between Leatherface and Lora Lee Sherman from Cherry Falls.

OVERALL SUMMARY I settled down to watch this knowing very little about it, thinking it would be a low rent cheesy boobs and blood movie. I couldn’t have been more wrong. From the opening quote by Ted Bundy to many pleasant surprises as the credits rolled, Anne McCarthy (A Perfect Getaway, Insidious, The Conjuring) was the casting director (surely a sign of quality)! I had a blast with this.

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GIRLHOUSE Review

•   February 12, 2015
•   Ernie Trinidad
•   Festivals , Reviews
•   horror , Screamfest

Film Pulse Score

I’ll likely piss off some readers, especially horror fans, when I say the slasher genre has pretty much been dead for the last two decades. It has been one of the weakest and most under-utilized subgenres of horror film lore, and looking back, it’s been nothing more than remakes, sequels to remakes and cookie-cutter, cliché-riddled schlock.

Not counting the aforementioned categories, when was the last time we saw an original slasher film hit the silver screen? I don’t mean “original” by definition, certainly not being based on previously existing material is a start, but one that presents the conventions in an original and entertaining way. Wrong Turn ? See No Evil ? Hatchet ? Nah, didn’t care for any of them. For this viewer, you’d have to go as far back as 1996, the year Wes Craven gave us Scream. Now it’s 2014 and a new film has come to pick up the mantle. Trevor Matthews’ feature directorial debut, Girlhouse, is a slasher film for the 21st century with 1980s sensibilities.

Kylie Atkins (Ali Cobrin), a young and beautiful college student in need of money to pay for tuition decides to move into a house that streams live content for a popular X-rated website. The women can come and go as they please but live at the house and play for the cameras, which are everywhere. She starts to adjust to her new life with fellow housemates Janet (Chasty Ballesteros), Devon (Alyson Bath), Mia (Nicole Fox), Kat (Alice Hunter) and Heather (Elysia Rotaru), and all seems to be going well. The stream, Girlhouse, has a diverse audience – teenagers, businessmen, shop owners, locals, foreigners and, unbeknownst to the women and operators of Girlhouse, one very disturbed, creepily obsessive admirer named Loverboy.

Slasher films used to be a dime a dozen, and the vast majority of them were forgettable. The ones that stood out always had four things in common – a memorable killer; likable characters; an engaging, well told story; and the creators had fun with the story. I concede that many slasher fans will point out that, in the last few years, there have been numerous films that met this criteria, but for this particular horror fan (who grew up with Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger), the genre has been stagnant.

Nick Gordon, in his feature writing debut, has written a solid throwback to ’80s slasher films but updated it to be more modern. The script features a memorable killer with a backstory, many believable and likable characters and an engaging story. Matthews embraced Gordon’s approach to imbue the film with an old-school structure that emphasized developing the characters before the carnage. Like the classic Halloween, it’s not until the third act when all hell breaks loose and the film is all the better for it. The third act in this film is a doozy.

The film features many memorable performances with Slaine, who you may remember as “Bubba” in Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone and who stands out thanks to his incredibly creepy portrayal of Loverboy. It may ruin the mystique of the character but Slaine was the face of Loverboy and stunt people play the man behind the mask but collectively Loverboy is a force to be reckoned with. Ali Cobrin is very good as our heroine Kylie; she’s instantly likable, believable, smart and resourceful. Her fellow co-stars in the house are all quite good as well. While their characters may be deemed stereotypical, they do put their own stamp on their respective parts, and each one has a memorable moment. Not to be outdone, there are people outside the house. James Thomas is fine as Gary, the man behind the house. Adam DiMarco and Wesley MacInnes are great as well as a pair of Girlhouse viewers.

This film can certainly be viewed as gratuitous and misogynistic. But relatively speaking, the sex scenes, which are few and far between, are neither gratuitous nor titillating, and while the women are the object of one person’s unwanted affections, they aren’t the type to play the victim. The film features a solid killer who seems very real and who is not your typical stalker. This boy can run, and that makes him all the scarier. If you’re a slasher movie fan, seek out Girlhouse because it’ll remind you of just how good slasher films use to be and give you hope knowing there are filmmakers out there who know how to do them properly.

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GirlHouse (2014)

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In an attempt to make some extra cash while away at College, Kylie moves into a house that streams content to an X-rated website. After a deranged fan hacks in to determine the house's location, she finds herself in a terrifying fight for her life.

Trevor Matthews

Nick Gordon

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Kylie Atkins

Erin Agostino

James Thomas

Gary Preston

Alice Hunter

Alyson Bath

Adam DiMarco

Ben Stanley

Elysia Rotaru

Chasty Ballesteros

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Status Released

Original Language English

Budget $3,150,000.00

• home invasion
• internet chat
• internet porn
• security guard
• porn actress
• college student

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Girl House (2014)

In an attempt to make some extra cash while away at College, Kylie moves into a house that streams content to an X-rated website. After a deranged fan hacks in to determine the house's location, she finds herself in a terrifying fight for her life.

Girl House Clip: A Killer Is Hunting Webcam Girls | EXCLUSIVE

Alice Hunter makes herself presentable in a hurry while meeting her roommate in a look at Girl House, in theaters and VOD February 13.