House At The End Of The Street review

“You scared the piss out of me!” gasps Jennifer Lawrence after a fellow high-schooler startles her.

Pity the same can’t be said of this hand-me-down horror, which sees Lawrence’s new girl in town alternately attracted to and freaked by the diffident loner (Max Thieriot) who lives by himself in the dilapidated pile next door.

It turns out his parents met a gruesome end at the hands of a menace that might not yet be finished lowering property values in this scenic corner of Pennsylvania.

Sadly, any hopes Mark Tonderai’s US follow-up to 2008’s Hush could have some Cabin In The Woods -style surprises up its sleeve are swiftly dashed as its talented lead is reduced to being just another scantily clad babe getting stalked by a psycho.

It wouldn’t be so bad had this House starred some pneumatic bimbo off the Hollywood casting couch.

But you expect better from the star of Winter’s Bone and The Hunger Games , especially after the rave reviews she received for Toronto award-winner Silver Linings Playbook .

Oh, well: at least she gets to sing and play guitar when not extricating herself from a car boot or stumbling around a darkened basement like a wannabe Clarice Starling.