PLOT: Struggling to pay for college, a young woman moves into a house that streams content to an x-rated website. Shortly after, an obsessed fan stalks her and tries to kill her and the other girls in the house. 

Girl House… what to say about it? I’ll say this: there is certainly a difference in watching this one in 2014 and any time post #MeToo. And really, we can say that about any horror movie that features a killer that fits into the stereotypical “incel” that we’ve come to know. This one goes a little further, making sure each of the girls in the house get an overabundance of suffering. I think one thing that also doesn’t sit well with me is the addition of a backstory for who we come to know as “Loverboy”. The addition of this almost feels like the filmmakers are making excuses for a reprehensible character, and I really don’t feel bad for a character that a couple of girls were mean to when he was a little boy. Get over it already. 

Girl House tells the story of Kylie, a college student struggling to pay tuition, so she decides to take a job working at a house that live streams the daily goings-on of the girls that live there. Sometimes it’s a couple of girls sharing a glass of wine in their pajamas. Sometimes it’s a sexy striptease. Sometimes it’s full-on sex. In addition, there’s a chat feature that allows the girls to interact with the audience. When one of the regulars, known as Loverboy to the girls, feels slighted by the girls, he stalks and kills the girls in gruesome, sadistic ways. 

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that does away with all pretense like Girl House does. And I guess, as this is a movie revolving around an x-rated website, there really shouldn’t be much pretense to this. So, you get a healthy dose of nudity and sex in this, but it also doesn’t feel as sleazy as one would think. It never really gets close to feeling like a softcore porno despite having quite a bit of T&A to satisfy that want. I think part of that has to do with the character of Kylie; she’s a more reluctant participant in the site, and as we follow her predominantly, the sex seems like window-dressing more than a driving force. 

OVERALL

This is an okay slasher. I like Ali Cobrin in this movie, and it certainly delivers on the skin, but it’s mean-spirited at its core. A lot has happened since 2014 and I think the perception of sex work has really shifted to a more positive light than what this movie puts forth. In slashers, if you don’t root for the killer, they can become nasty little things, and I am definitely not rooting for this guy. 

Overall Rating: 6 out of 10