House on Willow Street, When Home Invasions Go Bad

We've seen it. Schmucks with grand ideas. Oh sure!  Fool proof, nothing can go wrong...the mantra of fools. Determination and six months of careful planning will lead to skillful execution and success. In your dreams, that is!  Mr. Chaos always has to add in his two cents, and if he's busy...well, in 2016's "House on Willow Street," Satan himself will rear his ugly head.

Hazel (Sharni Vinson) leads a pathetic quartet of grown up foster kids. Leads them in what? Horrible injustices have left them scarred physically and mentally and now our team will execute a home invasion of the man responsible. After six months of careful planning, the team is set to act. In their minds no one will stop them from kidnapping the fiend's daughter, Kathryn (Carlyn Burchell) and hold her for a ransom of diamonds. Heavily armed they burst into the house.  Okay, here's a lesson for you future home invaders: If you get in too easily and your target's bedroom is adorned with satanic etchings...go rob a liquor store instead.  This is personal though, and Hazel, Ade (Steven John Ward), James (Gustev Gerdener) and Mark (Zino Ventura) have too much at stake.

Easy in...easy out.  Uh oh. Hazel attempts to phone and email Kathryn's dad. No answer. When Ade and James return to the house to figure out where the parents are, they find them. Yep, the family, and an ill-equipped Catholic priest have all been impaled with garden implements and drill bits. Very messy. Bigger problem: what tore apart the household is now chained in the quartet's hideaway. They kidnapped Kathryn all right, but it ain't really Kathryn anymore. The team now begins to understand the thing chained in their hideaway is a formidable demon looking to possess all four of them and conquer the world.  What follows will continue to be bloody and possession filled.

Gore and gratuitous possession scenes dominate "House on Willow Street." Sharni Vinson as an embittered sort bent on vengeance is fantastic, as are her co-stars. Will any of our quartet survive the wrath of the Prince of Darkness? Do failed exorcisms have a side benefit of deterring home invasions? Is this film a metaphor for the hopelessness of the common man's plight against the one-percenters?  Directed by Alastair Orr, "House on Willow Street" is an action packed horror film made in South Africa.  This film currently appears on Netflix.