Jessica
Jennifer Lawrence may currently be starring in what’ll surely be one of the biggest franchises post “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” craziness with “The Hunger Games”, and if her role as Katniss Everdeen isn’t cuttin’ it for ya, then check out Ms. Lawrence as Elissa in director Mark Tonderai’s “House at the End of the Street”.
Out September 21 in the U.S. and November 8 in Australia, “House at the End of the Street” focuses on a teen girl (Lawrence) who moves with her mom (Elizabeth Shue) to a new town and learns that their home is next door to a house where a double murder took place. Complications ensue when the teen befriends the massacre’s sole surviving son (Max Thieriot).
Tonderai spoke to EW and gave a little more insight on the film and the characters:
Thieriot plays a 21-year-old who lingers in the house against the wishes of the other neighbors, who would rather forget both him and his family’s horrific history. “Since he lives in this house and is driving down people’s home values, he’s very ostracized in this town,” Tonderai says. “The murder was committed by his sister, and she disappeared into the woods. There’s this rumor she still lives in the woods. People have seen her, and she’s insane. But is she out in the woods? And if she is, how does she feel about her brother getting involved with somebody else?”
Lawrence is one of the few people who view Thieriot’s character sympathetically. She has some family history she’d like to escape too, though it’s not nearly as creepy.
“She’s a high school kid, about 17, and they’ve just moved into this new area,” Tonderai says. “Her father was in a rock band and was never around. The mother, in the early part of her life, was always out on the road with her husband taking drugs and getting drunk. When she cleaned up and they got divorced, she was always out working. Suddenly, she thinks she wants to engage and be a parent, but at this point her daughter is becoming a woman and has been left to herself for a long time. She rejects these overtures of motherly love.”
Tonderai meanwhile, also says that the film is more about family instead of a thriller:
“I wanted to talk about how a parent’s love can help us or hinder us in becoming the people we are,” the filmmaker says. “It’s very much about a girl who’s becoming a woman, but her mother still feels she can do an audit on her life. The daughter is rebelling against that. She’s the petulant daughter, and [Shue] is the mother who doesn’t understand.”
