House of Darkness: New Blood (2018 TV Movie) User Reviews

Nah, this was essentially a swing and a miss...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 18 August 2020]

Right, well I hadn't even heard about this 2018 horror movie titled "House of Darkness: New Blood" before now in 2020 when I was given the chance to sit down and watch it. And of course I did sit down to watch it, even without knowing what the movie was about. It was a horror movie, that was essentially all that was needed to persuade me to watch it.

Turns out that "House of Darkness: New Blood" from writer and director Patrick DeLuca wasn't really an overly interesting or impressive movie. But I will say that the movie definitely had a good atmosphere to it, but ultimately and overall the movie just failed to impress and be a good horror movie.

Sure, I believe there is an audience out there for a movie such as this. However, I just wasn't part of that target audience. I like a horror movie to have more of a punch and more of an interesting story. Throughout the course of the entire movie here, I sat waiting for something interesting to start happening and for the movie to pick up and become worthwhile watching. That just never happened.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate. And I will say that Kate Stone and Hilary Momberger-Powers definitely performed well and carried the movie with their performances. Just a shame that the movie was so held back by a lack of proper storyline and script.

The movie was fully devoid of anything even remotely scary. And if you enjoy a horror movie that revolves around a cult, then there are far, far better movies readily available.

My rating of "House of Darkness: New Blood" lands on a generous three out of ten stars, mostly because of the production value and the performances of Kate Stone and Hilary Momberger-Powers.

Welcome to Red Creek!

[lavatch · 3/10 · 24 September 2020]

Brooke has started a new relationship with a wonderful man named Judd, who has taken an especial liking to Brooke's young son Dylan. As Brooke continues to recover from the loss of her first husband, Greg, she and Dylan accompany Judd on a trip to his mother's dilapidated home in the country. Welcome to Red Creek, Brooke!

The visit to the unkempt home turns into a nightmare with deep and dark secrets from the past. Of course, Judd turns out to be a liar about his family background. A domestic drama finally morphs into an "Omen"-like film when we see the birth certificate of young Dylan and learn that his birth date is 06-06-06. Lucky Brooke! She has just learned that when she rose from her birthing bed, she had delivered the latest incarnation of the devil!

The filmmakers padded the story with the long and disgusting stretch in the slovenly mother's home in Red Creek. How can people live this way!!!??? Brooke's skills in photography pay off when she goes to work in the dark room and learns that he had a brother named Michael and other secrets of Judd's past.

A ritual sacrifice scene is the order of the day for the climax. It will be up to the young Dylan to begin to exercise his formidable powers in which he will confound the police, sever Judd's carotid artery, and demonstrate his allegiance to the powers of darkness.

More Thriller Than Horror

[fatfil-414-451797 · 5/10 · 6 September 2022]

I think the main reason this movie has so many low scores is the fact the horror elements are few and far between, and is really more of a thriller with some supernatural elements thrown in, which really add nothing to the story, and just feel like they were thrown in to up the fear factor. The much over used "Inspired by actual events." tag is obviously referring to only a tiny element of the storyline, the rest has been filled in by the writers and directors to make it more exciting.

The basic storyline, a woman who's husband has disappeared a few years before, leaving her and her young son behind, now has a new fiancée. Soon after their engagement, the man's mother's house keeper quits, and he has to travel up to look after her as she has some undisclosed illness, but is most likely dementia. As it is the start of the summer holidays, the young mother and son travel with him to the country. Of course the old woman is creepy and lives in a creepy old house in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and the power keeps going out. That is really the set up for the rest of the story. A few spooky things happen, The fiancée has to keep leaving her and her son alone overnight to go for work meeting, or visit a care home to find a spot for his mother.

The ending is a bit of a damp squib and feels like a cop out, but if your not expecting a rollercoaster horror ride, you might enjoy.

Horror? More like joke

[abelegatis · 1/10 · 23 September 2018]

Did get scared even once, waste of time, wasnt even very intresting and coulnt wait till something happens and it never really does, like some f-king joke, not horror... It ends never started for real, easte of time

Inspired by actual events?....

[Wikkid_Gamez · 2/10 · 2 May 2024]

Riiiiiiight.... I think not.

This was slow and painful to watch and it's laughable that they are trying to play this off like it happened... When the cult leader said they had been extending their lives through sacrifice... I mean REALLY? We are expected to buy that load of ****! Yeah, I don't think so.

Definitely give this one a miss, unless there is literally nothing else on any channel, anywhere!

I am only still writing because there is a minimum character count that I need to hit before posting this. Trying to stay awake long enough to do so. But it down to like 24 now so I will be ending this now...

Barely even a one

[latinfineart · 1/10 · 5 January 2021]

I tried to like this film I really did. But unfortunately there was just absolutely nothing there, it was a film that had absolutely no content, it was an empty suit of a cinematic experience. The story that was so paper thin, and nothing in the way of frights, nothing in the way of intrigue, and the worst possible ending.

Avoid this film like you would the bubonic plague.

Decent enough genre effort for the channel

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 14 September 2018]

Trying to put her life back together, a single mother and her son go along with her fiancee to his mother's house to check on his elderly mother only to slowly grow convinced that something's in the house with them and a far deadlier secret to get exposed which puts them all in jeopardy.

This was a decent Lifetime Channel effort if still a little underwhelming. When this one works, it's due to the surprisingly enjoyable and sometimes creepy atmosphere present in the house. The film manages to mix in quite a few rather chilling moments, from the scene of her standing over the son in the dark shown only in the photograph and the later scene in the bathroom where a force is shown playing with her suggestively before realizing who she thought was responsible is not in the room. Managing to bring out scenes of ghostly shadows playing across the walls behind people or seeing them mumble around the house in dazed bewilderment have a far greater impact due to the setup of the house. The other big plus here is the incredibly dark and twisted story this one attempts to utilize that pops up in the second half. Despite being built up as a solid haunted house film in the first half, a solid twist emerges in the second half that gives this a much darker and chilling type of story where it gets involved with a cult that turns this into a fun time. That this emerges from the fine photograph setup is a great point and soon delves into the series of revelations that give this a really energetic turn in its final half where it turns into the race to get away from the cult and its intentions rather than the haunted house cliches which is rather fun. These here are what make it fun over it's more obvious flaws. Among the most obvious faults present here is the fact that there's just such a wholly dragged-out and sluggish pacing that it really makes the film hard to get through. The unneeded complications to the family life, from the overly drawn-out backstory about her ex-husband leaving her being given in detail to the meetings with her friend talking about the new engagement that give this the backstory that's not all that necessary for this kind of film. It tends to appeal greatly for the target audience, yet that all just adds a lot of extra time to the film that couldn't use for its horror setups. The other big issue featured here is the film's origins prevent it from really delivering the kind of shocks and thrills that would make this story stand out from the gluttony of genre efforts in this style. The format here of a person struggling to come to terms with whether or not the house she's staying in is haunted could provide some decent suspense or shocks, yet instead the supernatural elements are barely featured in favor of character-building and then kept to a minimum when they do occur. Despite building up a quite decent premise within the house, there's a decidedly heavy lean towards the melodramatic here that undercuts a lot of the supposed tension to come from the scares, the exact opposite feeling for those kinds of scenes. These are what hold this one back the most.

Rated Unrated/Language and Violence.

Enjoyable Movie

[ladymidath · 7/10 · 19 September 2023]

I have to admit the Lifetime horror and thriller movies are a guilty pleasure of mine. They are usually well filmed and some of them have some great stories and the acting isn't too doleful. This movie was one of the better ones, a supernatural movie with some really svary moments. It did have a few jump scares, but not enough to make it all feel forced. It also had a good creepy atmosphere and a twist at the end, although I did knid of see it coming. That didn't hurt the movie though, not for me anyway. The acting was fine and the cast did their thing without either chewing the scenery or being as wooden as a plank fence. The music and photography were nice and the story itself was interesting enough to keep me watching. All up I found it an enjoyable movie.