Review: Unnerving and moody 'The Night House' is more creepy fixer-upper than manor masterpiece
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If the psychological thriller âThe Night Houseâ was an actual residence, itâd be described as such on Zillow: Thereâs a solid-enough foundation, intricate architectural designs, excellent decor thatâs subtly familiar yet effective, but somebody frustratingly forgot to put on a roof.
With a spooky atmosphere and a great performance from Rebecca Hall, âNight Houseâ (â â ½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) is an unnerving haunted-house ghost story that juggles the occult with affairs of the heart. As creative as it is, the film tries way too hard to be a more mainstream version of those crazy, metaphor-laden indie art-horror pieces (âMidsommar,â âThe Witchâ), fumbling many of the most interesting themes and essential reveals by the head-scratching finale.
Directed by David Bruckner (âThe Ritualâ), the movie opens with high school teacher Beth (Hall) returning to her isolated lake house after a funeral for her husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeil). Though sheâs trying to keep it together, with a lot of alcohol involved, the avalanche of tragedy â his sudden suicide, his cryptic last note plus now living alone in the home he built for her â is taking its toll. She was always the one who fought bouts of depression, with Owen acting as a grounding force, so Bethâs feeling quite unmoored.
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As if her emotional state wasnât shaky enough, Beth begins to hear creaks in the house and noises outside, which gives way to nightmarish visions of bloody footprints, a house across the lake that mirrors her own, doppelgaĚngers and dark shadowy figures. Amidst being terrorized, Beth begins to dig into Owenâs stuff and discovers a treasure trove of growing weirdness: among them, reverse floor plans for their house, a clay statue of a naked womanâs body with an array of pins sticking out and Owenâs iPhone with pictures of Beth that she doesnât recognize and seem strangely off.
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The mystery that unfolds is essentially a wide-ranging, one-woman show for Hall, though Beth does have allies in best friend Claire (Sarah Goldberg) and enigmatic neighbor Mel (Vondie Curtis-Hall). Beth is weirded out by the fact that she thinks thereâs possibly a supernatural presence around her, but sheâs also a volatile character with a hair trigger. Hall brings almost an angry swagger to Beth at times, where her determination to find out various secrets and truths about her husband overcomes the fear of the unknown.
While not quite up the level of last yearâs âThe Invisible Man,â âNight Houseâ does well in keeping the audience constantly on the lookout for something creepy in every scene, and itâs much better at the whole âthereâs something seriously wrong with this placeâ vibe than the 2020 Kevin Bacon fright-fest âYou Should Have Leftâ: Thanks to some splendid production design, Bethâs lake house manages to be both amazing and disconcerting. The score and cinematography are both aces at ratcheting up the building tension, not to mention some well-timed and very disturbing visuals when you least expect them.
Itâs the storytelling where âNight Houseâ falters the most. Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowskiâs screenplay gives Beth an essential piece of backstory that disappointingly doesnât live up to its potential. The film is better at looking at marriage â from the sacrifices people make to how much one really knows about their spouse â in chilling fashion, though even that gets shoved aside for some existential dread.
Given the chilling mood Bruckner strikes and dark corners he unearths, horror fans will want to spend some time in this âNight Houseâ even if itâs not worth a long-term investment.