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Film: The House on Hill Street
Year: 2025
Director: Omar Rogers
Writer: Omar Rogers
Starring: Neidra Bartley, Eric Hardyway and Naomi Williams
Review:
This is a film that I got the chance to see via screener thanks to Lauren from Breaking Glass Pictures. Now with a quick search, I thought this was a 2026 horror film. It does look like it came out in mid-December. Regardless, I still wanted to check this out to help represent independent cinema. This is a Voyage through the FiVes watch as well.
Synopsis: a stranger asked for help. Gwen (Kelly King) answered - and vanished. Now her home welcomes new guests, but some say the host never left.
We start this off with a woman trying to start her car. I believe her name is Keisha (Patricia Reynoso). When she can’t, she goes up to a house and knocks. This place belongs to Gwen. She’s on the phone, talking about a new necklace that she got. She comes to the door. Seeing the car and wanting to help, she lets Keisha in. She goes back to get her phone and when she returns, she makes a terrifying discovery. A large man, who I believe is Max (TKO), is inside her house. She’s held at gunpoint.
This then shifts over to meeting our two couples that we’ll be following. One is Iris and she’s seeing Khalil (Eric Hardyway). He doesn’t want to wake up just yet. Iris, on the other hand, jumps up to get ready. They’re heading to Atlanta so Iris can interview for a new job. They’re going to be joined by her sister, Janiyah (Neidra Bartley), and her boyfriend, De’Andre (Malcolm Montgomery). They’re treating this like a cheap vacation.
Both couples make their way here. They come to the house, which used to belong to Gwen. Janiyah and De’Andre arrive first. She notices Gwen looking in a window when Janiyah peaks out of the blinds. This scares her, but when she looks again, no one is there. The other couple then arrives to settle in. Iris finds the necklace that Gwen had just got. Iris puts it on.
There are weird things that happen from here. De’Andre sees a woman in the kitchen that night. He chalks it up to taking drugs and drinking. Janiyah sees her looking for her dog out front the next night. De’Andre comes out, asking who she’s talking to and the woman is gone. This sparks both of them to give up getting high, thinking that’s why they’re hallucinating. That is until something even more drastic happens the longer that they’re here. They also aren’t the only ones seeing this specter.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is by saying that this does do good things with its haunting. It felt to me like it might be inspired a bit by J-Horror, but just a western twist on that style of haunting. You could even consider it modern gothic. The ghost isn’t the villain here. It is trying to get the attention of people who are in her house. I do have issues though with the presentation of the story and the film itself though.
Let’s then start with the positives. What they did to set the stage isn’t necessarily new, but it is effective. When our group then arrived to stay in her house, that was fine as well. There are plot holes that I’ll come back to, but so far, I was intrigued. The haunted house stuff is good. What I like is that at first, it is just isolated to one character. That makes them think they’re seeing things. Being that they’re partying each night, that factors in as well. This will lead me to my first issue. The payoff is lacking here. We got a solid scary evening in a haunted house, but what they did from there didn’t work for me.
What is an issue is that there are no stakes. We see this older woman killed in her home. We then see Max a few different times. He is being haunted, but what happens in the end wasn’t enough. This group that stays in her house gets tormented more than he does. I get part of that is that they’re invading Gwen’s space. It isn’t their fault though. They are renting this house. I do think that is something else that should get more fleshed out. Who is renting this out? I also think that there needed to be more of a haunting for Max, since to me it feels like he gets away with it.
I’ll then just end out this part by saying this does have core themes of the burden of kindness. This would be trying to fix someone else’s problem before your own. There is the loss of trust by compromising the safety of one’s home and the vulnerability that comes with it. There is the residual trauma that is anchoring Gwen to the house. There is also the ripple of effects that are a consequence of her murder.
The amateur acting, while a bit wooden, is acceptable enough. Williams is a good lead, and Hardyway works well as her partner. Bartley and Montgomery are fine as supporting group members. Overall, the group shows good fear for the haunting parts. Their emotional expression is weak, possibly due to the script. King is effective as the woman who becomes a lingering figure. TKO, Reynoso, and Danielle Calhoun adequately complete the ensemble.
All that is left then would be the filmmaking aspects. For the most part, I thought that the cinematography and framing were good. It doesn’t necessarily do anything too out of the ordinary. Setting up the creepy shots when Janiyah looks out of the window or a character is in the kitchen. Horror related stuff is more interesting. This is bogged down in its pacing. We have too many montages. The sound was off as well. It was inconsistent at times and it took me out of it. I will say that the musical selections were fine. Other than that, the limited effects we got were fine.
In conclusion, this presents a solid premise with an effective, J-Horror inspired haunting that leverages the unsettling nature of invading a sacred space. While the film successfully establishes a creepy atmosphere and utilizes its specter well, the narrative ultimately suffers from a lack of genuine stakes and a disjointed pace due to an over-reliance on montages. The core themes—the burden of kindness and the violation of home—are strong, yet the resolution feels underdeveloped, particularly concerning the antagonist Max. Despite its flaws in presentation and scripting, the film offers atmospheric horror and acceptable performances to be a worthwhile watch for fans of independent, modern gothic cinema, earning it a modest recommendation for those who enjoy lower budget films.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 10