It was only a matter of time before we would see those who found success on platforms like TikTok and YouTube try to make the transition to the big screen. Sam and Colby found moderate success with their fans, but really, to the rest of the world it was barely noticed. Now later this month we’ll get the highly anticipated Shelby Oaks from Chris Stuckmann, who got his start with movie reviews and creating content on his YouTube channel. But now we have House on Eden, a small-budget found-footage film from content creators Kris The Girl and Celina Spooky Boo. I’ll admit I’ve actually been following their content for a few years, and I was a little optimistic about what these two would come up with, but I have to admit this was disappointing and frankly just lazy. To be blunt, it is an insult to those out there who are grinding to create the best film they can on a shoestring budget. The film follows a trio of content creators (they are basically playing exaggerated versions of themselves, not even bothering to change their names) led by Kris Collins.
The group likes to film and investigate potential haunted locations, and Kris has found a location that no one has filmed at before, and she convinces her friends to go to the spot and investigate it. Of course things go wrong once they arrive at the location, and to be honest, I’m surprised I made it that far.
The film is definitely a knockoff of the Blair Witch Project, and honestly I don’t fault them for that. I mean, it quite literally ignited the fuse to the found-footage genre, so as they say, if you are going to steal, then steal from the best. My frustration stems from the cinematography in the first half of this film. It is atrocious. To call it shaky-cam would be generous. Now these characters have state-of-the art equipment (at least by vlogging standards), and many of these cameras have stabilizers, or you can remove shake in the editing process. They chose to make their image look like crap. You can pick any of Kris’s YT videos or Celina’s from the past few years, and all of them will look better than this mess. Then they tried to make it look like they were shooting in film and different formats. Again I get that it’s a nod to the Blair Witch Project, but I don’t even recall seeing a character with a prop 8mm or 16mm camera.
When the film gets to the house and we hear some back story on the home, it gets a little better, but there are so many holes in this narrative that it would look like a colander once you start to scrutinize it. There are so many wasted opportunities that it makes no sense for this film to come out like this, especially when the central location is all Celina’s property in real life. All they’d have to do is go back and reshoot things. There’s no real crew needed; they could have fixed what didn’t work with ease. Somehow they spent $10K on this, and I don’t see how, especially when they already own most of the equipment. This could have been so much better if they just filmed this like one of their normal episodes … but that gets me to another problematic issue. Then there is the issue of dialog and filler in the first 20 minutes. Seriously, it’s bad to the point of even having a lazy hide and seek moment and obnoxious poop jokes. It’s like they were trying to appeal to fifth-grade boys. It just felt so forced, when usually their chemistry in other videos is quite fun and charming. As for the actual house … for a place that’s been abandoned, it looks spotless, and sure that’s supposed to be part of the “creepy” factor, but they add nothing to really explain why the home looks well kept and furnished. But that gets to my central complaint; the film is just lazy.
Kris and Celina were already successful before they teamed up, and in the past couple years they got into paranormal investigations, and, well, Celina has also come out as being “psychic”; and then they are connected to Sam and Colby (who make a brief appearance in the film), who have also segued their career into paranormal investigations. Granted, that’s how I found out about these groups, because I’ll admit I’m obsessed with paranormal investigating to a borderline unhealthy extent. I wouldn’t say that I found either of these YouTubers credible investigators, but if anything this film shines a light more on their credibility. If they can fake it for a film, what else have they been faking on their other videos? Perhaps I got it wrong and this was Kris’s way to expose the YouTube community that has exploited this field and saturated the market, filming at one haunted house after the other, churning out the same results one upload after the other. Now if that was the point of the film and that was a direction it took, I’d be more intrigued, because it actually had something to say. I know I’m being hard on this film, but I’m calling these ladies out because I know they can do better. The film managed to make over $400K in a theatrical release, so I’d imagine they still managed to make a profit, though I doubt anyone will remember this film by the end of this month, much less this time next year.
House on Eden is now streaming on Shudder.
