House Swap (2010) User Reviews

From bad to worst

[sykopat · 3/10 · 10 April 2015]

Alright, before I get into the review, let me just say this: I have seen tons of horror movies, from the lesser known low budget ones to the extremely well made ones with known actors and I still find a way to enjoy most of them.

With that said, I simply do not understand how someone could give this movie a good rating.

OK, let's start with what's good (or not bad) The mood? Pretty good. The fact that it's another "found footage" movie? I don't even mind, I in fact am still a fan of those found footage ones. The context? Pretty great, the movie being mostly filmed in an old England house. The story? Maybe not original, but still not bad either.

The bad, now. The acting. Terrible. I've seen worse, but it's definitely not good. At some point, it will impact the mood making the story very hard to get into.

The worst. The plot. Oh. My. God. The plot is simply terribly bad. It shouldn't be allowed kind of bad. As other reviewers have already said, there were so many plot holes I stopped counting. From one bad decision to another.

****SPOILER PART - START And when I say bad decisions, I do not mean "why didn't she hide instead of running away. kind of bad decisions. No. I mean "let's ask the boyfriend to go get the camera instead of saving us" kind of bad. It just did not make any sense. Why didn't they just leave? Why did they still had their camera towards the end? Why not work as a team and kill/knock out/capture the guy? Or a policeman that works alone and cannot check the house? Oh, come on. I might not live in England but I'm pretty sure it doesn't make sense over there either. One of the worst part was when they got woken up at night by a noise, they knew it was someone at that point, the guy made a 10 sec check around the house, came back in his room and started arguing with the girlfriend because she discovered that he knew about it, and went back to bed because he didn't want to argue anymore about it. OK... and the stalker/killer situation, they just slept on it? Let's just leave the crazy guy in our house and take care of it tomorrow morning... Wow.

SPOILER PART - END****

Too bad because it had some good ideas, some entertaining parts, but the bad parts were simply so stupid and so bad that it voided the better ones. Therefore, I give this movie a 3 / 10.

Worst movie ever made!

[wksk · 1/10 · 9 June 2014]

Right from the start you can tell that this is going to be, at least, a bad movie with awful acting. But then it just kept getting worse and worse. The characters were not acting like normal people. Normal people would have made completely different decisions. It's completely found footage. Which I wouldn't have minded. I actually still like those types of movies, so as you can tell, my standards are pretty low as it is, and this movie was just AWFUL. From the writing to the acting to the directing, all the way around, AWFUL! I wouldn't even recommend watching this movie if you were bored. You're better off taking a nap, or picking another movie... ANY movie, as long as it's not this one.

Found footage film ''House Swap''... crazy stalker terrorizes young couple :P

[sstetsko · 2/10 · 13 June 2014]

The guy above who gave this movie the highest regard is obviously just jerking your chain. This movie really is terrible. It is so bad that I am making my first IMDb review post just to ensure you know it. From the absolutely unoriginal plot to the absolutely irrational choices the characters make it is poorly planned. And not just irrational in the excusable sense-- like "they are scared so they might do something stupid like that", but irrational in the sense any person with half a brain or better would come up with a better idea than the leads do. The acting is not the worst I have seen... it is mediocre, but not terrible, and that is probably the only thing that keeps me from calling it one of the worst movies ever, but the scriptwriter and director must be absolute morons to not see the holes they have created. I will admit that, to me, found footage is a cheap gimmick used in the vast majority of cases to get away with making garbage, and it has got to the point now where it is mostly just really dragging the horror genre down, but this, even among found footage films, is one of the poor examples of the bunch.

Worst movie I have seen for a long time

[kaytizate · 1/10 · 12 August 2014]

Terrible script, terrible acting and a lot (and I mean A LOT) of plot holes. The concept behind the movie had potential but it was very badly executed. From the moment it started the acting was wooden. As the movie went on they began making ridiculous decisions that real life people would not make and the whole thing felt very forced. This could largely be attributed to the script that did not seem to allow for believable interaction between the couple.Toward the end of the movie it became very unclear what was actually happening. Ultimately, this was a huge waste of time and I would not wish it on my worst enemy. It was that bad I returned it to the shop I had bought it from and didn't even care that I couldn't have a refund because I had already watched it. it's a real shame DVDs don't make good toilet paper.

A hidden gem

[mshubert20 · 8/10 · 3 September 2014]

If you are looking for a slasher, this isn't for you. But if you enjoy a taught, psychological approach to horror, this should be right up your street. OK, the 'found footage' format is a bit tired these days, but judging by the date this movie was completed, it seems to have been conceived around the time of Paranormal Activity's success, and should have been released before the slew of crappy 'found footage' movies I've had to watch since then. The male lead is a cocky type, shooting his own home movie of his experiences, and the female is a doll fast losing patience with him. In these terms the performances of both the leads are convincing. There are enough scares along the way to have the girls in our home squealing with fear, and there are a couple of pay-offs in the end that had me jumping, and I'm the kind of person who usually laughs off supposedly scary horror movies. Definitely worth watching, but it shouldn't have been released with an 18 cert, as it is no gore-fest.

Quite Gripping

[jussb · 7/10 · 6 September 2015]

**The reason that some people give high ratings and low ratings is because we all enjoy different things. It's that simple**

I quite enjoyed this movie. It was predictable in parts and unpredictable in others. I didn't notice any issues in the acting of the two main characters, however I agree with another reviewer that the policeman could've performed more convincingly. I also agree that most people wouldn't have made the same decisions in the couples circumstances. It made me jump a few times and kept me watching from beginning to end.

I've seen a lot worse films than this and found it similar to other found footage movies such as Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.

I think that the movie was executed quite well. You might like it or you might not. I did. Am I allowed to say that?

excellent and highly recommended

[simonwilliams3-681-178870 · 10/10 · 16 May 2013]

This is a great film !! best horror film in ages.

The house is amazing- a creepy old place in Glastonbury that makes a perfect location for this house swap. I really like the way the storey is told through the eyes of the police putting the CCTV footage together.-clever. The acting is superb and the storey moves at a great pace with the tension building and building all the time. The music and sound effects also add to the feeling that this house is not a good place be! Some of the effects are brilliant and some scenes will have you jumping out of your seat. It really is a classic film with a great original plot that has been sewn together masterfully. I highly recommend that you check it out.

Well worth watching

[anitahv86 · 9/10 · 28 June 2015]

I was searching for a horror flick in the mood of "Soulmate", "The Last House on Cemetery Lane" and "White Settlers" and came across this little gem of a found-footage film.

Well aware that there's always a good chance of being let down when trying to find a decent horror movie, and a little discouraged with a couple of the reviews, me and my boyfriend decided to go ahead and watch it anyway. The good reviews were uplifting.

Movie starts with one of my favorite horror movie scenarios - couple moves to old house far from people. This time as a house swap where the main couple come from LA, USA to the countryside of Glastonbury, England to work. It is filmed as the video diary of a screenwriter and his musician girlfriend, and it's actually pretty convincing as such. Their work getaway starts off idyllic, but soon they realize everything isn't as it should as strange things start to happen in the night.

The movie manages to keep the tension throughout the story, and there were several occasions where I wanted to hold my hands up ready to cover my eyes. So if you like atmospheric indie horror films and the found-footage genre (this is one of the better in the genre, IMO), you should definitely check this out. You might be surprised!

Not much happens but very scary

[gaybarryan · 9/10 · 12 September 2014]

This is one of those fantastic films where very little happens but the suspense of waiting for something to happen is by far easily enough to keep you gripped to edge of your seats or in my case my girlfriends arm.despite the poor acting policeman ,all acting is brilliant and really makes it feel real as its not typical Hollywood overacting.the tense music and self shot wobbly footage in dark areas was so scary we went and bolted our front door.I've seen entire horror franchises,Halloween,Friday 13th,nightmare on elm street,paranormal activity and thousands others and only as above so below in recent times has really scared me like this did.i generally look for films with bad reviews on certain sites just to try them out and so far enjoyed most heavily criticised movies yet hated all the award winning over praised Hollywood trash like frankenweenie,gravity,19 years a slave ,all sin city style films and other rubbish like that.i prefer gritty indie realistic films whatever genre.if you don't watch it and your a fan of horror then your not really a fan of horror.don't expect much action,its just tense suspense,and the ending was a huge let down but otherwise almost flawless and perfect as a film.

Very watchable

[rmkdec · 8/10 · 6 May 2023]

Really enjoyed this after being very nervous reading some of the negative reviews. However I found the acting good the filming good and the story good. Great jump scares and very paranormal activity. A couple of cheesy mistakes but on the whole I would say go for it.

The couple very believable Americans and the filming In England also felt real and well executed. A great old house in the countryside adds to the tension. You just know that something is going to happen and the anticipation was pretty exciting.

Like I say this would have fit in well with the paranormal activity franchise because it really eludes to it.

Normal activity....

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 23 December 2020]

This kind of topic is not paranormal anymore, but it remains not so bad, efficient if you watch this only from time to time. But IF you see this kind of horror film one after the other, that's another matter. It belongs to the very very very long list of features which DNA is named CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, BLAIRWITCH PROJECT, CLOVERFIELD, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, and so on, Spanish, French Eastern Europe stuff, a sort of new wave in matter of filming. I think that also can be seen as a disguised way to dissimulate lousy, clumsy directing skills. This way, if a director doesn't know how to place or move a camera, NO ONE NOTICES IT. Because the camera is supposed to be handled by one of the characters of the story !!!! And a character, for instance a simple tourist is not supposed to be a professional skilled film director. See what I mean? This way, anyone with a tiny budget and a handful of friends can make a horror movie in the deep countryside without any problem, no authorization and important technical crew, ONLY his cell phone and above all without any directing skills !!!! ha ha ha Why not, knowing this, I still can appreciate this new breed of features. But, I repeat, in small doses, because it may scare you, and I am an old timer, who grew up with Bob Wise's THE HAUNTING. So, if i want to direct a movie, without any abilities of any kind, no matter the shaky or too still camera, I know what to do. I will only need a cell phone, some friends or a simple broad, and of course some good ideas. ha ha ha