| House of 9 | |
| Director: | Steven R. Monroe |
| Producer: | Karen Hamilton Philippe Martinez |
| Music: | Mark Ryder Charles Olins |
| Cinematography: | Damian Bromley |
| Editing: | Kristina Hamilton-Grobler |
| Distributor: | Bauer Martinez Studios |
| Runtime: | 88 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom Romania |
| Language: | English French |
| Budget: | $6 million |
House of 9 is a 2004 psychological horror film directed by Steven R. Monroe and starring Dennis Hopper and Kelly Brook. It follows nine strangers who have been abducted and locked inside a house. A mysterious voice called The Watcher (voiced by Jim Carter) tells them that they are to play a game: the last person alive can leave the house and win five million dollars. The film is presented with "live feeds" from hidden surveillance cameras, showing the nine people turning from cooperative escape attempts to a killing fest.
House of 9 premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 20 May 2004.
A young woman, Lea, is kidnapped and awakens in a mansion-like house. She leaves her room and finds other people who are still asleep. Attempting to flee, she finds that all of the exits are sealed and panics, resulting in her fainting. Lea is awakened by a priest, and finds that the other seven people have awoken too. A voice comes over a speaker announcing that they are to play a game. The voice states that they must kill one another until only one is left, after which the survivor will go free and be compensated with five million dollars.
The players attempt to escape by breaking down the door using a dining table as a battering ram and digging through the basement, but to no avail. A sound from the kitchen reveals a dumbwaiter with cold cooked chicken breasts and boiled potatoes. In the dining room, the players introduce themselves: Father Duffy is a priest, Jay is a cop with a pistol, Lea is a dancer, Claire is a tennis player, Francis is a musician and Cynthia is his wife, Al B is an ambitious rapper, Shona is a drug addict, and Max is a fashion designer. Shona's ankle bracelet monitor gives some players hope that this may attract outside help. After dinner, the players choose who sleep together in the bedrooms with Cynthia and Francis taking one, Father Duffy getting his own while the others share.
The next morning, an unknown assailant sneaks in and attacks Jay. The stranger flees and Jay and Lea assemble everyone in the hallway where they all argue. Afterwards, Jay confides in Lea that she and Duffy are the only ones he trusts. Soon the group hear noises from outside and try to get their attention, but fail. Disheartened, they open the wine cabinet and get drunk, except for Duffy, Lea, and Jay. When Francis returns, he finds Al B making advances on Cynthia, causing the two men to fight. When Cynthia intervenes, Al B pushes her and she falls back knocking her head against a steel railing, killing her. As punishment, Jay locks Al B in a room using a pipe to hold the door shut. When sent food their sent less, during dinner, Al B screams for his portion, some believing he shouldn't be deprived while others voicing it should be kept for the group, Jay relents and goes to the locked room and tosses in a potato to him, which only causes him to continue to scream and pound on the door more. Jay returns to the dining room and notices Father Duffy gone he runs out with his gun assuming correctly that he went to take Al B more food, upon removing the metal pipe Al B rushes Father Duffy and escapes and gets ahold of the metal pipe and savagely beats Jay in the face & head with the pipe. Everyone, including Al B, becomes visibly distressed by this. With his dying breath, Jay gives Duffy his gun.
The next day, when the six remaining players receive food, their given extra food and wine with a note stating "Good Work" with the belief that it's a reward for the murder of Jay. Francis visits Al B, who is remorseful over what happened with his wife while the former apparently forgives him. Later Father Duffy and Lea find Al B hanging from the ceiling, apparently having killed himself. After another group argument, Francis retreats and show signs of a mental breakdown. Shona and Claire argue in their room, escalating to Claire stabbing Shona with a cork screw. Meanwhile, Francis visits Lea in her room in her bathroom, ripping the light fixture from the wall and throwing it into the sink, electrocuting her. Father Duffy finds Claire, who lies and claims it was self defense. He leaves to look for Lea and finds her on the bathroom floor. Claire goes to get wine and finds Max there greedily eating and offers to form an alliance with him.
Father Duffy is still in Lea's room when Francis comes in not expecting him to be there and pretends he was looking for him because it was dinner time, he starts feigning shock of seeing Lea's body trying to insinuate that she must have committed suicide "That she was Weak" claiming it will be more food given now because of her death, which Father Duffy doesn't believe & accuses him of doing it for the money promised. He accuses him of Lea's death & his wife's as well, Francis gets irate and starts yelling for Father Duffy to shoot him Father Duffy leaves out with Francis following behind him continuing to scream becoming aggressive and forces the Father to shoot him in the stomach, during this time Lea has regained consciousness and witnesses the fight. Lea runs into Francis's room to hide, and attempts to hide in the bathroom and discovers glass shards from a stolen decanter that Francis had hidden earlier in the tank of the toilet.
Father Duffy returns to the foyer and sees Max strangling Claire, he lies and claims that she was trying to steal the food and continues to strangle Claire causing the Father to shoot Max in the head. Francis suddenly sneaks up and stabs Father Duffy in the back and grabs the gun shoots Claire and then shoots & kills Father Duffy who is pleading for his life. Francis then starts screaming "I Won, Gimme My Cash" over & over to the person perceived to be behind the cameras watching when he hears the sound of Lea who is trying to put the tank lid back on the toilet but accidentally breaks it alerting him.
Francis discovers that Lea is alive and goes after her. As he toys with her, Lea stabs him in the ensuing struggle and runs to a balcony. Francis charges at her and they flip over the railing landing on top of the dining room table Lea lands on top of Francis, but when she gets up, she realizes the shard had pierced Francis in the heart as he dies.
The front door opens, revealing a bright light and a bag on the floor: presumably with the money. She walks through the corridor to another part of the house, finding four others with bags and visibly shaken. The film ends with a fearful Lea realizing that the game is not over.
The DVD includes an alternate ending.
As Lea steps into the light, she is knocked unconscious and wakes up in her apartment bed. She finds the bag containing money, a small TV set and a videotape. She plays the tape and sees the camera footage of the foyer with the remaining bodies having been removed and the house cleaned up. The Watcher says she has now become a member of the world's most exclusive survival club. The picture then goes to the bedrooms where there are nine new people passed out on the floor. Lea stares at the screen in shock as The Watcher says, "Happy viewing..."
Filming for House of 9 took place in Romania.[2]
House of 9 received mixed reviews from critics and audiences. An especially harsh review from the web site Film Verdicts called the film "preposterous pretentiousness".[3] Dread Central said, "House of 9 does what it sets out to do, and that’s to deliver to its viewers a movie that sucks you in until you cannot breathe."[4] DVD Talk said, "See it for the hotties, for the nasty kill scenes, and for the always-insane Dennis Hopper at his most adorably weird."[5] The Hartford Courant reviewed the film, noting that "As with "Saw II'' (and almost any slasher movie these days), the killings become tedious, something to be endured so you can see how it ends."[6]
The DVD was released on 14 February 2006 in the US.