Tiny House of Terror (2017)

Following the mysterious disappearance of her husband, a woman gives up her large high-tech house along with the trappings of her wealthy lifestyle to move into an isolated tiny house.

Review

A title like that, and it's not a comedy? Written by Jill Sanford (debut), this is a cozy who-dunnit, horror, thriller, made for TV effort, that's actually pretty good. It presents like a horror film, but long term watchers will spot that it's going to be a who dunnit pretty quickly, and the setup of the cast is strong. I certainly didn't see the culprit coming.

Director Paul Shapiro (24) I'm sure was working to a strict budget, and severe artistic limitations by the producers (in order to ensure the TV-ness of it) but has created a solid thriller. It is a decent story with enough traction to be gripping, and while not scary, tense.

The bulk of the film is carried by Francia Raisa (Black-ish). Raisa has a reasonable back-list, but most of it is TV work, and little stands out as something would give her the experience to lead what is fundamentally a horror film. She does good work here though, and I would happily watch more of her work - in the right genre, of course.

All in, it's not a bad effort. It's light on scares, but the mystery is solid. It's not ground-breaking, but it does service as what it was made for. Worth watching for the Sunday afternoon movie when you don't fancy seeing something stronger.