Movie Review: There's Someone Inside Your House (2021)

Synopsis: After being acquitted following the accidental burning of one of her classmates, Makani Young moves from Hawaii to a small town in Nebraska to finish her senior year of high school with her small group of newly-acquired friends. When a killer starts stalking students at her new school while wearing masks that look like the victims and revealing their darkest secrets to the entire town, Makani fears both her life and the past she has kept hidden are in danger.

Who's in it? The movie stars Sydney Park, Theodore Pellerin, Asjha Cooper, Dale Whibley and Jesse LaTourette.

Review: After several days of getting caught up on television shows, I convinced my wife to watch a movie with me yesterday evening. After discovering my first choice would be too long for a Thursday night, I looked for another option and ultimately picked this one out.

At first, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie. Other than the killer wearing masks that looked like his/her victims, the plot didn't sound overly original. In fact, even after watching it, I personally would describe it as a combination of Scream and Pretty Little Liars. The film, however, did ultimately exceed my expectations.

As far as being a "thriller" goes, I thought the movie was a bit bland in that regard with very little suspense or scares (a problem with most modern thrillers, at least in my opinion). I did, however, think the film was a halfway decent murder mystery.

So, full disclosure, I figured out who the killer was about 20 minutes into the movie. However, I am also going to chalk that up to my extensive experience watching movies in this genre. Overall, I thought the filmmakers did a great job establishing several potential suspects, including one late addition that had me temporarily second-guessing my original choice. 

In fact, after watching the entire student body run out of a party rather than trying to save one of their own from the killer, I think you could legitimately argue just about anyone at that school was cold blooded enough to be the bad guy. I literally had to resist yelling at the TV. "For Christ's sake! He's carrying a knife, not a machine gun. Tackle the guy!"

My only real complaint about this movie is it doesn't make an effort to explain how the killer learned the intimate secrets the victims were hiding. In fact, two of the obvious red herrings in this film actually would have made a lot more sense as the killer in that regard. It makes me wonder if the writers originally had planned to have another person be the killer or (more likely) if they purposely left it unanswered because they plan to have a sequel. Either way, I feel like this detail would have provided more closure.

Final Opinion: The movie could have used a little more suspense and there were some things (including the killer) that were kind of predictable if you watch enough films in this genre. However, it did end up being an entertaining movie for the most part and I would recommend it as a result of that.

My Grade: B+