Havenhurst is a Horror Film by Andrew C. Erin and starring Julie Benz and Danielle Harris.
Jackie (Benz) is a recovering alcoholic who's recently moved into a large Gothic apartment building on Havenhurst avenue in New York City. The building is run by an old woman named Eleanore Mudgett (Fionnula Flanagan) with the help of her son, Ezra (Matt Lasky). She notes that, during her stay, Jackie needs to stay completely sober. If she falls off the wagon, she will be evicted.
Of course, Jackie also has another reason to be staying there. Her friend Danielle (Harris) was a tenant there until she disappeared under mysterious circumstances. So of course, Jackie wants to find out what happened to her. While there, Jackie makes a friend in a teenage girl named Sarah (Belle Shouse), who's staying there with her foster parents Tammy (Dendrie Taylor) and Wayne (Toby Huss).
During her time there, Jackie finds some photos of the interior of the building that show the same places, but they have noticeable differences about them. She also discovers a piece of paper that Danielle had been writing on that shows something is up with the building.
The film was released at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14th, 2016.
Havenhurst contains examples of:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Jackie and Sarah try to get out of the building through an air vent. They make it to the end, but only Sarah gets out, as Jackie gets dragged back into the building by Jed.
- Apartment Complex of Horrors: The titular apartment building is for people recovering from various addictions and problems to stay while they better their lives. The main rule is that anyone who falls back into their vice is evicted. Eviction turns out to be a Deadly Euphemism, as tenants who fall off the wagon are ejected from their rooms into the apartment's Creepy Basement to be tortured to death by Jed, one of the sons of Eleanore Mudgett, the landlady, who happens to be descended from a Serial Killer who used the apartment as a front to lure in his victims.
- Big Bad: Eleanore Mudgett, the landlord of the apartment building.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: This is what awaits any tenant who gets dropped into the basement.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The building on Havenhurst is where people can stay to try and give up the vices that lead them there. However, fall off the wagon once, and you'll be evicted.
- Downer Ending: Eleanore and her kids escape punishment for murdering their tenants, succeed in killing Jackie, and bring Sarah into their family so she can continue their legacy of murdering tenants who fall off the wagon.
- Evil Old Folks: Eleanore Mudgett, descendant of Herman Webster Mudgett, the Serial Killer.
- Friend on the Force: Jackie is friends with a police detective named Tim Crawford.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: After being dropped into the basement through a trap door, Tammy finds Wayne on an operating table, the lower half of his body being cut off, a large cut going from the wound to his chest, and his entrails hanging out of the hole.
- It Runs in the Family: Elinore inherited her penchant for murder from her ancestor, Herman Webster Mudgett.
- One-Word Title: Of course this trope is in effect, what with the film being called "Havenhurst".
- Secret Room: Jackie and Sarah find one in the laundry room. The room is full of documents and newspaper articles revealing that the building used to belong to Herman Webster Mudgett, who used it as a front to lure in his victims.
- Secret Path: The building is full of them. This explains why the rooms of the building seem smaller than they reasonably ought to be.
- Torture Cellar: The tenants who fall back into their problems get dropped into the torture chamber in the apartment basement, where Jed murders them.
- Trap Door: Plenty throughout the building. They're used to drop "evicted" tenants into the Torture Cellar.
