There are just not enough Halloween comedies these days. With his finger on the very faint pulse, writer/director Jordan Rowe delights with his brand new micro-budget film, Hamilton House, which recently premiered at Dances with Films. In true DIY fashion, the meager resources are no match for Rowe and his creative team’s determination, instincts, and charm behind and in front of the camera. The story of a struggling actor itself may not necessarily be ambitious, but the larger themes of finding purpose, second chances, pivoting when life gives you lemons, and what it means to really support someone make tremendous noise.
Zach (Elijah Lawrence) longs for his big break. He’s poured blood, sweat, and tears into making it in New York City, but it feels like it’s treading water. He shares a basement apartment with two other actors — his girlfriend Vivienne (Julia Whitcher) and Bella (Sara Padgett) — and tech bro Terrence (Jonny Morrison). Actually, no one knows what Terrence does. He stays isolated in his bedroom most of the time. Hamilton House tells a familiar tale about a group of 20-somethings trying to break through in the entertainment business, but being met by nothing but brick walls. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, as they say.
When Zach’s favorite horror director moves in down the street, he hatches a plan to turn their apartment into a full-blown haunted house on Halloween. Maybe then they can attract a true industry titan to give them the time of day. But it can’t possibly be that easy, right? The group learns the hard way about what it really takes and how breaking big is not always what it’s cracked up to be. Jordan Rowe gives his actors plenty of material to chew on, rooted in the human desperation to try the same exact paths to the same exact ends. You can only circle the drain for so long before you’re faced with the cold, hard truth: you need to steer your life in a different direction and try something new.
Lawrence and Whitcher are particularly dazzling together. Both actors flex both their dramatic and comedic chops, expertly flitting through the genre exercises as the scenes require. That goes for Padgett and Morrison, too; they draw from such a deep well of comedic understanding to further boost Rowe’s script. That’s not an easy task, particularly in delivering the physical and verbal punch lines to make it all operational. Hamilton House features faint traces of horror, especially from Zach’s head, but it’s positioned firmly in the comedy of the situation.
Jordan Rowe’s Hamilton House does so much with so little. It’s refreshing to see. Rarely does the story swing for something outside of their limited means, and that’s a good thing. Too often with indie films, filmmakers go for big when their budget just can’t deliver what the story needs. Hamilton House glows with heart and offers up poignant themes about enjoying even life’s quiet moments, what it means to really use your gifts, and even what your destiny is.
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