House on Eden (2025)

House on Eden is a good example of why found footage needs more than an interesting location and a camera that won't sit still. The setup is straightforward: a group making paranormal content heads out to investigate a remote house. That should be fertile ground for suspense. You can create a lot of tension by making the audience feel trapped in a place where something might be watching. Unfortunately, this movie takes so long to get going that I never felt invested in what was supposed to happen.

The biggest issue for me was the pacing. The film is relatively short, yet much of the running time feels like people wandering around and talking without doing anything that builds the story. I don't demand that every found-footage movie start with a ghost jumping into the frame. I do need a sense that we're learning something about the characters or that the unease is growing. Here, neither happened consistently enough to hold my attention.

I also struggled with the camerawork. Found footage can be shaky when a character is running or panicking, and that makes sense. When people are simply filming each other as part of a show, though, the camera still needs to look like something an experienced creator would use. Too much of this was distracting in a way that didn't add realism. It made me more aware of the filmmaking than the supposed haunting.

There are a few attempts at scares, but I never found the movie genuinely frightening. Even once things start happening, the earlier buildup hasn't done enough to make me care. That's frustrating because the format can work incredibly well when the filmmakers use its limitations to their advantage. Instead, I was waiting for the movie to give me a reason to be interested.

If you're a big fan of the people involved, maybe there's enough enjoyment in watching them together to carry you through. As a horror movie on its own, I don't think House on Eden works. There isn't enough story, tension, or payoff to make the time worthwhile. A short movie can still feel very long when you're just waiting for something to happen.

House on Eden managed to make me jump once, and I am almost embarrassed to admit that because most of the movie was not scary. It's about people going out to investigate a creepy house, which should be something that gets to me. I don't always do well with haunted houses because I start thinking about my own house afterward. Unfortunately, this one took so long to get to the scary part that I spent most of it wondering when something was finally going to happen.

I remember checking how much time had passed and realizing we'd already watched a big chunk of the movie before there was much of anything to be frightened of. Once the creepy stuff started, I did get nervous for a little while. At one point I didn't even want to walk into the kitchen by myself. A haunted-house story can get into my head that way. The problem is that those few minutes weren't enough to make up for everything that came before them.

Another thing that bothered me was the camera. I understand this is supposed to look like people filming their own paranormal investigation, and it's not going to be as smooth as a normal movie. Still, these characters were supposed to know how to make videos. Even when they were just talking or being silly, the camera was shaking around so much that it became distracting. I kept thinking they should be better at their job.

I believed the friends liked each other, and I know some of the performers have big online followings. I can see how their fans might enjoy watching them regardless of the story. That's different from making a movie that works for someone who doesn't already know them, though. I wasn't interested enough in the characters to make up for how little was happening.

There are found-footage movies that really scare me, especially when they make an ordinary room feel unsafe. I wanted that here. Instead, I got a handful of creepy minutes surrounded by a lot of waiting. I don't think it's worth sitting through the whole thing just for those moments, and I wouldn't choose to watch it again.