‘It is a terrible thing to look at oneself, and to all the while see nothing…’
Osgood Perkins is one of the most lauded horror auteurs currently working in the film industry. Films such as Gretel & Hansel, Longlegs and The Monkey have ensured that any new Perkins’ film is an event on the horror film calendar. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Perkins’ second film as director after The Blackcoat’s Daughter (also excellent), is a slow-burn horror film (much like Perkins’ latest film, Keeper), but it’s also mostly compelling throughout…
Live-in nurse Lily Saylor (Ruth Wilson) is hired to care for retired novelist Iris Blum (Paula Prentiss in her first film role for thirty years) by Iris’s estate manager, Mr Waxcap (Bob Balaban). From her first night at the Blum house where a phone is wrenched out of her hands by an unseen force, Lily starts to realise that things are not quite as they seem. Could this be linked to Polly – the protagonist in Mrs Blum’s most popular novel, The Lady in the Walls?
I Am the Pretty Thing… is a film that very much relies on atmosphere and an ominous sense of dread rather than out-and-out scares. It’s more indebted to Shirley Jackson than Stephen King. Perkins imagery and aesthetic are typically assured throughout, and Wilson delivers a fascinating performance, all wide eyes and childlike naivety, but ultimately, the paper-thin plot is not dense enough to lift Perkins’ sophomore effort into the upper echelons of his oeuvre. That’s not to say this isn’t an effective and occasionally frightening experience, but it’s also not terribly memorable either.
I watch so many horror films that they begin to blur into one after a while. I enjoyed this film whilst it was playing but I’ll probably never think of it again.
