A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Night House” (2021).
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The Night House” looked intriguing from the trailer, not least for the inclusion of the wonderful Rebecca Hall. But for once it well lived up to my expectations.
Beth (Rebecca Hall) and a concerned Claire (Sarah Goldberg) (Source: Searchlight Pictures).
Plot Summary:
Newly bereaved Beth (Rebecca Hall) is desperately trying to come to terms with why her husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit) rowed out from their remote lakeside house and shot himself with a gun she didn’t know they had. Drinking too much and having the most terrible dreams, she starts to peel back a hidden life, raising concerns from both her best friend Claire (Sarah Goldberg) and her kindly widowed neighbour Mel (Vondie Curtis-Hall).
Nice BIG windows so you can see everything coming! (Source: Searchlight Pictures).
Certification:
Talent:
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Evan Jonigkeit, Sarah Goldberg, Vondie Curtis-Hall.
Directed by: David Bruckner.
Written by: Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski.
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Plain inconsiderate. Not wearing flip-flops or veruca socks. (Source: Searchlight Pictures).
“The Night House” Review:
Positives:
- Of the different movie genres, comedy and horror are probably the ones that polarise opinion the most. One person’s meat is another’s fowl. But I have to say that this movie officially creeped me out. I was extremely tense for just about the whole 107 minute running time. Much of this is down to Rebecca Hall, who is just SUPERB in this. She brilliantly portrays a woman on the edge, her impassive character breaking every so often into an “everything’s fine” sarcastic smile. I know that the Academy tend not to nominate actors for Oscars for ‘frivolous’ films, but this genuinely, to me, felt like an Oscar-nomination-worthy performance.
- We’ve talked before about the overuse of ‘jump scares’ in horror films and the law of diminishing returns. This film doles them out very sparingly indeed. There are two notable ones (one spoiled by the trailer!) but – man – the first of these had me levitating off the seat!
- The script is very vague indeed about where you end up in this movie. (I’ve tried to do a synopsis of what I *think* happened in a “Spoiler section” below the trailer). The script deliciously muddies the waters between dreams and reality; sanity and madness; sobriety and drunkeness; with the real-life Madelyn (Stacy Martin) bringing you up short at times with an “oh – so that bit must by reality then”!
The wonderful Rebecca Hall. A simply brilliant performance. (Source: Searchlight Pictures).
Negatives:
- The ending. I’m not sure how I wanted it to end. But it felt wholly anti-climactic.
Mattel were perplexed why their “Voodoo Barbie” doll was failing to fly off the shelves. (Source: Searchlight Pictures).
Summary Thoughts on “The Night House”
London-born Rebecca Hall seems to have a “leisurely” output as an actress, but she really deserves more prominence in the industry. (If you’ve not seen it yet, watch her outstanding performance in “Christine” as another proof point). Here she magnificently holds the movie together.
Effective horror films for me are those on the tense psychological side rather than the mindless slasher variety. This point was well made by Tom Shone in his review in “The Sunday Times”, describing it as a “middle-aged kind of horror movie!”. “The Night House” delivered those mental chills for me in spades. There is actually very little gore in this one. But it certainly had me thinking about it when I woke up in the middle of the night last night. Was that a noise downstairs??
If you like your scary films, then this one is highly recommended.
Trailer for “The Night House”:
The trailer for “The Night House” is here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tshycci2ZA . Note, as mentioned above, this has a few spoilers in it.
Spoiler Section – Not to be read until you’ve seen the film!
What happened at the end of the movie?
So, I struggled to rationalise what happened at the end of the film, so I’ve netted down my thoughts below as to what I *think* was going on.
- Beth had met “nothingness” during her 4 minutes of death in her teens. Having latched onto her, that ‘entity’ had dogged her for years as her ‘depression’. (This is quite a nice concept if intended).
- Having a close relationship with Owen, who was counselling her for her depression, the entity latched onto Owen. To try to protect Beth, he investigated ways to ‘confuse’ the entity, building a reverse copy of the house and populating it periodically with lookalikes of Beth. (Did the entity force Owen to murder those girls? Or was this all in Beth’s imagination?)
- The entity eventually won Owen over and forced him to take his own life.
- At the end, Beth is overcome by the entity and is about to follow the same suicidal path. But the love and friendship of Claire and Mel pierce through the spell, and she consciously ‘chooses life’, turning her back on the entity and ‘defeating’ it.
Please comment if you came up with different conclusions from seeing the film. But that’s my best shot.
But it’s a good film, right, where you are left with a ton of ambiguities to mull over?
Hi Bob
Thank you again for another informative review . I have been receiving your reviews for some time now and have found that we have similar tastes in movies . I am in my late 60’s and you have opened my eyes to new genres and have even got me watching some of the latest blockbusters . I am in NZ and due to out latest lockdown I have now time to drop you a line and say that ” You are truly appreciated !! )
Stay Safe !!
What a lovely message Keith! Thank-you! The lack of comments I get often make me think I’m talking into a black hole. But you’ve really made my day with this.
Cheers, Bob.