HOSTAGE HOUSE
US, 2021, 85 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Taylor, Julia Terranova, Emily Sweet, Justin C.Schilling, Patrick Cronen, Richard Neil, Kaymen Casey.
Directed by David Benullo.
Hostage House is a plain, unvarnished title. That is the setting for this hostage thriller. It is nothing more, nothing less – although, towards the end there are some surprising developments in character twists.
Susan is quite a successful real estate agent and is going to a mansion for an open house day. The daughter, Heather, is going off to college, after the death of her father, her mother thinking about selling their home. All seems normal enough, a visit from Susan’s demanding boss, and an encounter with the rather quiet security guard driving by. (Both characters reappear later in the film.)
A young couple have been involved in a robbery which has resulted in the death of the house owner who is not expected to be present and not have a gun. The young man, expert on picking locks, has been shot. As expected, they take over the house, the daughter trying to escape, being brought back. Susan offers to use her first aid kit to help the wounded man and she does.
The young woman is quite brazen, with the gun, Susan realising that she is pregnant. The young man, is much more sympathetic, explaining that he wanted no violence. So, there are interchanges between the four. Then Susan’s boss, Paul, turns up, tries to make a financial deal with the couple who have to be in phone contact with their boss. Paul tries to make an escape but becomes impaled on the iron fence.
Just when mother and daughter finally to escape, with the help of the young man, they encounter the security man on patrol – and, of course, he is revealed as the boss at the other end of the phone. So, once again, dangerous confrontations and threats, the police closing in, the wounding of the young man, the death of the boss, the arrest of the young woman.
The film has a nice happy ending with the daughter going off to college, the house sold, happily. Then, unexpectedly, a scene with the young woman giving birth, joyful with the child – and then the authorities taking it away from her and she crying out in desperation. Not quite the ending expected but the film taking a stance on justice and punishment for crime, especially by this callous young woman.
