'The Night House' Review
R: Some violence/disturbing images, and language including some sexual references
Runtime: 1 Hr and 48 Minutes
Production Companies: Anton, Phantom Four Films
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Director: David Bruckner
Writers: Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Evan Jonigkeit, Stacy Martin, Vondie Curtis-Hall
Release Date: August 20, 2021
Theaters Only
Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep together — but then the dreams come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house call to her, beckoning with a ghostly allure, but the harsh light of day washes away any proof of a haunting. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into his belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and terrible and a mystery she's determined to resolve.
David Bruckner’s The Night House is undeniably one of the freshest, chilling, and human psychological horror thrillers I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s a surprisingly poignant approach to grief and loss mixed with an enthralling mystery component to get you hooked throughout. The film centers around a schoolteacher named Beth (Rebecca Hall) as she mourns the loss of her architect husband of 14 years. He recently committed suicide on the lake by the lakehouse he built for her. Left with only a vague suicide note, she begins experiencing haunting visions of him and her house, which leads her to find disturbing information about the life her husband used to leave and that she was unaware of. Meanwhile, her longtime neighbor (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and her best friend from work (Sarah Goldberg) become concerned for her wellbeing the longer her rabbit hole of mystery regarding her husband’s double life becomes.
The film’s major driving force is Beth, the lead character who is written like a genuine human being in such a refreshing manner that you hardly ever see depicted in films of this nature. The way writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski handle the theme of loss through Beth are as complex as the architecture of the house she lives in. Instead of bursting into tears or taking time off to process, Beth quickly recoups herself and moves on with her life but the freshness is still eating her alive through her expressions and dialogue. She channels her grief through cynicism and humor as a defense mechanism. You don’t only sympathize with her as a character due to her loss, but you’re attached due to her actions and relative notions. For a psychological horror, she has to be one of the most captivating and complex leads I’ve seen in a long ass time. Needless to say, Rebecca Hall is way too damn powerful of an actress, for she carries the film with vigor and sincerity as Beth. She’s absolutely compelling, embodying the heavy emotions this character has to carry in such a grounded and authentic manner. Beth is such a gripping character to follow that she becomes THE primary factor of why you’re completely immersed in her mystery.
The overlying mystery regarding the sins of Beth’s husband’s past is as engaging as trying to solve a Rubik’s cube on your own, for it keeps you on your toes and guessing throughout. There are ample pieces and clues Beth uncovers on her own and the more supernatural it gets, the more chilling the film’s atmosphere becomes. As Beth experiences these visions, you keep questioning what’s real and what isn’t. David Bruckner’s direction of these sequences is visually compelling, for he plays with natural lighting and foggy mist due to the setting, and the frights make your skin crawl due to eerie and ghostly occurrences that haunt Beth. It creates a chilling and uneasy atmosphere that is built up well, so when shit hits the fan by the third act, you genuinely become stressed out.
The Night House is surprisingly balanced between being a character study with a thoughtful approach to grief while being a captivating psychological horror that incorporates supernatural elements with real-world drama. However, the lead character bit off a lot more than she can chew when it comes to stringing the clues of her husband’s secret life while keeping herself together emotionally, especially when she’s experiencing revelating visions. As far as writing goes, while it’s human in emotions and deep in characters, but some of the supernatural components need a designated lane to stick to because it’s a lot to take in. But there’s a lot of disturbing, violent imagery, and genuine spooks that had my nerves on edge. And let me tell you, I was one of two people in a screening room so that intimacy between me, the movie, and the vacant room made this one of the scariest horror experiences I had this year thus far.
