TrashHouse

By their very nature, you have to extend a lot of goodwill toward a low-budget film. Sets will creak, the acting may not always be of top quality and the special effects may well be questionable at best. If you watch a low-budget film with expectations of losing yourself in roller-coaster ride ala Kind Kong, you're probably going to be disappointed, but approached with the correct attitude there can be an awful lot to enjoy and admire, and even find inspirational.

TrashHouse is a lower than low budget film written, produced and directed by Pat Higgins, and this is his full length feature debut recently released on DVD by Screen Entertainment.

Simply put, five strangers, gathered together through the wonders of computer profiling are invited to a location to participate in the testing of a new implant that allows the user to live out and create their dreams within their environment. Each guinea pig takes to their role differently; one lives out his greatest sexual fantasies, another conjures a technological environment and sets about curing cancer, one can't think of anything more interesting to do than sit in a chair and have money flutter about around him, and so on. As events continue, one of the lab-rats is not who they initially appeared, and has murderous intentions...

There's no denying that there's zero budget going on here, and TrashHouse sometimes collapses under the weight of its own ambition, but ultimately this is to its credit and adds to the charm. Sure the CGI is laughably amateurish at times, the locations are sparser than sparse, the acting is at times questionable, but what carries the film is an originality that doesn't play out simply and predictably from A to B. Pat's script has flourishes in it that makes the 80-odd minutes breeze by with nary a finger hovering over fast forward button, as so often happens in micro-budget films that need to extend their running length to something respectable by adding terminally unnecessary scenes.

There's a sense of humour running through the film that frequently raises a smile, whether it be the two riffing security guys (sat in front of nothing more hi-tech than a single PC monitor), or Lucy's recreation of a 50s sitcom environment. In black and white. With a laughter track.

Approach TrashHouse in the right mood with the right level of expectation and there's a lot to enjoy here. Moreover, there's evident talent at work as well - Pat's direction is assured and you can't help but feel that if he had more money to play with and less need to concentrate on running the entire production then he'd be able to conjure up something special.

I, for one, look forward to the next productions from Jinx Media.

I hadn't heard much about this movie, so when I came to see it, it was hype free. Which I think served it better. i had no expectations I just wanted a bit of a laugh. I got one. Though their are weak points to the story, and afew plot holes to boot, some people have missed the point watching this. There are at least two damning reviews on this site - one by a filmmaker I respect - but I have to disagree with his view.

This film does not take itself seriously and was intended to get the same reaction from the audience. The "bad" acting was deliberately hammy because that was the idea. And you have to award points to any director who manages to turn a show into a weapon in on scene. I loved that moment.

All in all, not a great movie. But it served its purpose and entertained me for the night. Lighten up people! Amber Moelter was wonderful and Richard was good too. Bond villain!

A nice attempt at the classic locked house storyline. Let down by CGI on a shoe string and rather neon pink blood but notable for its performances... including a strong turn by Amber Moelter as the defiant anti-scream queen and Tom Wontner as the sensitive love interest. Would have been better played more psychological than blood and gore, but the wish fulfillment machine is an interesting "MacGuffin" although bringing together the "most stable" individuals in the country and locking them in a house is bound to be a recipe for disaster. Go for loonies like Big Brother, much safer. Fun and a respectable "stab" at the horror genre.

Please read this - it could save you time, money and mental anguish. I've watched some dog poo in my time, but this one takes the worm-ridden biscuit. Taking into account some of the the other comments posted about this film, I can only assume they're associated with the film, mates of people associated with the film or possibly four-thumbed inbreeds. The concept of the movie was an interesting one, but this was not backed up by the script/dialogue, which would have been more suited to an episode of Hollyoaks (if it was acted by "special" people). It's impossible to sit on the fence regarding the acting, as it was so wooden I would have been picking splinters out of my arse for a week. As per the aforementioned "special" people, only they would find the "special" effects to be "special". I only wish that I could have given it a negative score to counteract the blatant exaggeration of the insiders / inbreeds that have given this film a good review. Any comparisons to Bad Taste / Braindead are laughable, the only similarities being the size of the budget and not how they used it. On a separate note, my friend has thankfully now recovered from the unfortunate skin problem.

I watch a lot of low budget independent movies and am sick to the stomach of the argument "if you lower your expectations" and "it's low budget so you have to cut it some slack" or "take it for what it is" to support a positive review blatantly written by someone involved in the the film, or someone involved with someone involved in the film.

Trash House is bad. Really bad. It's so bad it will actually offend you. It certainly offended me. Everything that can possibly go wrong in a movie is present here. The script makes no sense. The acting is bad. The SFX are atrocious. The sets that can be found, like a hotel room, are built (I watched the behind the scenes). The main set, the house of the title, is a blatant tiny house on a normal housing estate instead of some hi-tech monstrosity. So even on an economic level of where and what to spend the money on the film is a bust.

It'll make you feel like you want to scrub your skull out with soap.