If you weren’t a skeptic of open houses before, Netflix’s upcoming film is sure to make you one.
Scheduled for release on Jan. 19, The Open House follows a mother (Piercey Dalton) and her son (Dylan Minnette of 13 Reasons Why fame) who temporarily move into a relative’s mountain house after a family tragedy. The only catch is that the house is on the market, and they’ll need to skedaddle for open houses on Sundays.
The trailer’s establishing shot reminds us that the mountains in the winter can get cold, brutal and lonely, with scores of large, empty homes left vacant. Then within the eerie, small-town setting we see that the property in question may be attracting less-than-desirable real estate leads.
Indeed, instead of an eager, cash-rich second-home buyer, it appears a few drip campaigns were targeting “murderous local” or “angry, bed-dwelling specter.” (Might want to update your CRM’s lead classifications). And then there’s the possibility that this place has been haunted all along as suggested by the movie’s tagline — “you can’t lock out what’s already inside.”
The Open House will likely offer a particularly fun ride for real estate agents, who will get to see a part of their job unfold into a literal nightmare, not unlike real life. Along the way they might ask: “Will the staging company charge the owner for removing blood stains?” and “Could this whole scary mess have been avoided by self-conducted video tours?” Some may consider the film more documentary than fiction.
Call it therapy, or a Netflix original reminder that even when you’re dealing with poor lighting and lookie-loos, things could always be worse. Because despite its well-edited ambiguity, the teaser does make one thing certain for this property sale: not everyone is going to make it to closing.
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