The Night House (2021)

[Eric Prime]

Discuss

[Eric Prime]

Wish I liked this more than I did. Rebecca Hall is astounding and the sound design is incredible, barring one obnoxiously loud music cue that gave me a headache. But while the screenplay isn't bad, and there's some good scares here, I don't think it gels as well as it should have. The film ends with the main theme supposedly being about depression and it doesn't feel like it earned it? By the time we get to the climax, I was thinking to myself, "oh I guess that's what the movie is about?" It's also weird how the mirror world is implied to be metaphorical and as if it's really happening? If it was one or the other I would have been fine, but it felt like the movie was trying to have it both ways and it's just kinda weird.

[FilmFincher]

I thought this was pretty great. 

Tonally it's Saint Maud meets The Invisible Man meets The Babadook with a tiny bit of Mike Flanagan sprinkled in. 

 

The film took a very firm grasp on it's intentions early on. It's much more about the state of mind of it central character Beth as she tries to make sense of her husbands suicide, and Rebecca Hall completely owns the performance, running the whole gamut of mental states. She's genuinely masterful. 

 

While I think the film firmly places itself in a more allegorical side of horror, they sprinkle just enough lore, and doubt about the subjectivity of Beth's perspective that you can find a lot to discuss on either side of things. There's a constant question of how much of what we're seeing is actually happening? And the film is better for it, keeping you on your toes.

 

The scares primarily relied on tension and they really worked for me. Any scene with Beth alone in the house was anxiety inducing. There's one egregious jump scare that felt somewhat unnecessary.

 

Where The Night House struggles is in it's last moments. For a film that's done a wonderful job of being subtle, being effortless in the construction of it's scenes and expressions of character it decides to lay the sauce on real thick. Not giving enough time to what should be an important moment, and settles on heavy handed, contrived dialogue after the fact. 

 

Nonetheless a majority of the film is really well done but you may be left with a slightly sour taste leaving the theatre. 

I haven't been too impressed with some of the horror this year so it was nice to see something that gave me genuine chills.

 

8.5/10