John Knautz and Trevor Matthews’ Girlhouse starts as an extremely effective fashion, giving us a glimpse of the man before the monster.

And if the movie had continued along that path it might have been a horror classic.

Instead it moves along another track, and introduces us to the movie’s protagonist, Kylie Atkins (Ali Cobrin) a college student who doesn’t have the money to pay for her education due to the death of her father and Girl House, a live camera porn site.

Speaking of the latter, there’re cameras all over the house watching the ladies in intimate and casual moments, though one of their watchers is a killer, and he wants to love Kylie…to death.

Girlhouse could have been a commentary on Internet stalking, or pornography’s influence or numerous other things as opposed to actually what it ended up being, which is slightly above average slasher flick.

And I understand that’s it’s not a documentary but a more nuanced plot–especially after that great opening–would have given the violence added heft.

That being said, Girlhouse is still quite watchable and even clever at times, though considering how good it looks it’s hard to watch without wondering what could have been.