House Hunting 2013

Charlie Hays [Marc Singer], his daughter Emmy [Janey Gioiosa], and his second wife Susan Hays [Hayley DuMond] follow a lead on a foreclosed house that sits on an expansive 70-acre private tract, a property Charlie hopes to buy not just for its size but as a chance to bring the feuding relatives together—Emmy and Susan have never quite gotten along, and this home could be the setting that helps them learn to coexist. At the same time, a separate family—Don Thomson [Art LaFleur], his wife Leslie [Victoria Vance], and their live-in son Jason [Paul McGill] who is nursing a broken leg after a car accident—are drawn to the same property after meeting a mysterious man in a red hat who hands them an advertisement for the same house. Both families arrive and find the dream home abandoned, a place that seems almost untouched by time.

On the road back from gathering the realtor’s contact, they nearly strike a distraught girl: Hanna [Rebekah Kennedy], a silent figure whose tongue has been cruelly cut out. The sight of Hanna unsettles them, but a decision is made to take her to the hospital, only to have the house yank them back into its grasp. The initial plan to leave fades as hunger and hesitation mount, and the families decide to stay, hoping for help to arrive. They place faith in the house’s odd routine of provisions: seven cans meant for seven people, a musty little ritual that binds them to the space as days turn to weeks.

Tensions quickly rise as cabin fever tightens its grip on the group. Leslie’s buoyant, almost sunny mood clashes with the mounting despair of the others, especially after the death of her daughter Lizzy [Emma Rayne Lyle], a tragedy that hangs over the house like a pall. The house itself seems to experiment with them, and soon it begins to alter its own rules; the supply of food shifts from seven cans to six, just before Leslie’s death, a moment that shatters the fragile balance the families had struck. Susan grows suspicious of Charlie, and Emmy starts to piece together a darker truth about the home’s history.

Through a series of eerie clues and unsettling visions, Emmy begins to sense connections far deeper than mere bad luck. She sees the man who killed his own son after a devastating loss and catches glimpses of a mother’s vengeful memory—an echo of Emmy’s own mother and the secrets Charlie swore to protect. It becomes clear that the house has a long memory, replaying sorrow and violence in a relentless loop. Emmy’s bond with Hanna deepens as they both navigate the house’s puzzles and warnings, the pair moving through the rooms in a tense, whispered companionship.

As the nights grow darker, Jason admits a horrific truth in a confrontation marked by fear and guilt: he once killed a woman in a hit-and-run near this very house. The revelation ties into the house’s history, confirming the mother’s presence as a lingering, suffocating force that haunts every room. Don, increasingly detached and speaking to a figure who resembles himself, attempts to free the others, but the price of survival grows steeper by the hour. The truth unfolds: Charlie discovers that Susan has knowledge she won’t share openly, and Emmy uncovers the darkest facet of their past together, as Susan’s actions and Charlie’s mounting paranoia push them toward a fatal confrontation.

The tension erupts when Susan, fearing danger from Charlie, strikes first with an act of violence that ends Don’s life, echoing the house’s grim cycle of tragedy. The house, already starving them of its food, now rapes the family of safety as Charlie’s grip widens into something brutal and unhinged. Jason confronts a vision of the mother he harmed, and the specter chokes him, another victim of the home’s inexorable pull. Charlie, convinced that Susan has manipulated the dwindling supplies—and perhaps even Emmy—theorizes a final, desperate plan and attacks Susan, crushing her head with a soup can.

The chase resumes as Charlie pursues Emmy and Hanna, intent on breaking the trap that imprisons them all. Hanna is killed by Charlie, a brutal reminder of the house’s lethal logic, and Emmy, armed with Don’s gun, shoots Charlie, who collapses and dies. The survivors race toward the road, hoping to escape the doomed loop, but Emmy’s escape is cut short when she encounters another family on the road. They drive away, but the story ends with a sinister pull: Emmy is dragged toward the car by the man and his son who had haunted her family’s past, and her tongue is cruelly cut again, sealing the cycle in a chilling echo of the house’s enduring curse.