‘I think there’s something in my house…’
What happens after we die is a question that is surprisingly swerved by horror films. Sure, there are numerous ghosts, legions of the undead, a smattering of spirits, but the question of what it actually feels like to die is rarely dealt with head-on. The Night House approaches this topic and does so mostly successfully…
Following the tragic suicide of her husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit), Beth (Rebecca Hall) begins to have strange visions and waking nightmares. Feeling lonely in her cavernous lakeside property (built by her recently departed husband), Beth uses drink as a way to deal with her alienation whilst still trying to hold down a job as a teacher and a friendship with her loyal colleague Claire (Sarah Goldberg).
Director David Bruckner has been up and down in terms of horror. The Ritual was great but his recent Hellraiser reboot was incredibly disappointing. The Night House is like Bruckner’s career in microcosm. The good stuff is genuinely good but it’s overshadowed by undercooked ideas and an uncertain third act that aims for ambiguity but just ends up being unnecessarily confusing. That being said, his assured use of cinematography and innovative editing ensures that even in its most bewildering moments, this movie is still great to look at. It is also genuinely creepy in places, in ways that I didn’t really expect.
Elsewhere, Hall is fantastic as ever as our protagonist, and it’s a shame that this type of film is routinely ignored by the Academy because the British actress really does shine here. Her incarnation of Beth is at turns sarcastic, furious and beleaguered – the other characters don’t know how to handle her and neither does the audience. What should be a familiar ‘safe’ role for the viewer to identify with becomes something unpredictable and truly compelling in the hands of Hall – so much so that this feels more like a vehicle for her than anything else.
The Night House flirts with greatness but just falls short. There is a nagging feeling that Bruckner has a great horror film in him, he just hasn’t made it yet.