directed by Alex McAulay
There's a teen girl discovering her own sexuality, bickering/clueless parents, a threatening yet polite and mysterious young man, adultery, secrets, and unexplained impossible events. A House On The Bayou was too long. I didn't care about most characters. I wasn't impressed with or apprehensive of the bad guys.
Despite the antics of some couples in Hollywood or other less traditional communities, once they are married many people still initially expect that henceforth they will be the only ones providing that good thang to their spouse and vice versa, forever. It's explicitly stated in most marriage vows: "forsaking all others". Well as my high school gym teacher once ruefully noted to our class, "Forever is a long time, baby!".
John Chambers (Paul Schneider) has concluded that forever fidelity is just too limiting for him. A college professor, John has been doing the do with at least one of his students, Vivienne (Lauren Richards).
John isn't as slick as he thinks he is. His acerbic realtor wife Jessica (Angela Sarafyan) has discovered her husband's dalliances. Jessica is angry and hurt. However Jessica doesn't want to throw in the towel yet.
Although John is an unfaithful husband he's a decent father. Jessica wants to stay with John for their daughter Anna's (Lia McHugh) sake.
So the family travels to the Louisiana Bayou. The family will vacation there in a home that Jessica's company lists. John and Jessica will clean up and stage the home while hopefully saving their marriage (and keeping their secrets from Anna).
When shopping for veal--Jessica very explicitly wanted veal not beef--John and Anna encounter a strange young man named Isaac (Jacob Lofland) who flirts with Anna. As Anna is obviously underage, John puts the kibosh on that, leaving the store without buying the veal. John lies, telling Jessica that the store had no veal. So, Jessica is upset when Isaac and his Grandpappy (Doug Van Liew) show up at their house with veal and offer to help with dinner.
Isaac behaves inappropriately around Anna. Isaac has knowledge he shouldn't have. Isaac has keys to locked rooms. Grandpappy is no less odd.
But when Grandpappy plays a record of a private conversation between John and his lover Vivienne, Jessica gets scared. It's not easy to get Isaac and Grandpappy out of the house. Who are these people? How do they know things? And what do they want?
This film could have been a tense slow burn cat-and-mouse mystery drama. It could have been an over the top bloody siege horror movie like Ready or Not or You're Next. The writers/director tried to split the difference and wound up with what I thought was a subpar story.
