The Night House – Film Review

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.

Few movies come along these days that truly feel unique and daring, let alone original. Most films these days are sequels, remakes, or superhero movies. I love a great sequel or a superhero movie, don’t get me wrong, but completely original stories are not as easy to come by in today’s world of cinema. David Bruckner‘s The Night House is not only the best horror film in years, but it’s the only movie I’ve seen so far this year that’s truly encompassed me through its entire one-hundred-and-seven-minute running time.

It’s the rare movie that feasts on every microfibre in your brain and keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes you feel paranoid. Think Uncut Gems but for the horror-thriller genre. There was a scene in the final ten minutes of this movie that was so intense that I realized my hands were starting to sweat profusely and my heart was beating rapidly. It takes an extremely talented cast and crew to make a movie this good and The Night House thankfully boasts some truly amazing people.

The Night House truly feels like the type of movie that just doesn’t get made anymore. Some may look at it and call it pretentious because of its obvious arthouse style, but to not give it a fair shake would be an extreme disservice because I genuinely feel as though this is one of the best horror thrillers in the past ten years or so.

This is a slow-burner if I’ve ever seen one. Nothing outright “scary” happens until about the second act and even then, some will have different interpretations of what “scary” is and that’s honestly what I adore about horror so much. Different things scare different people. For me, a movie like The Nun is not scary. It’s full of jumpscares that may initially be startling, but in my opinion, it’s not scary.

Getting scared and getting startled are two extremely different things. Two examples of films that actually scared me are Hereditary and Midsommar, both directed absolutely masterfully by Ari Aster. Hereditary is haunting to me because it depicts an almost too real-feeling destruction of a family due to traumatic events and Midsommar because it shows the downfall of a woman who realizes her boyfriend is horrible and descends into madness.

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

The Night House is similar to Hereditary in that they both deal with the feeling of grief and trauma that comes with losing a loved one. In the case of The Night House, our lead protagonist Beth loses her husband of over a decade, Owen, due to suicide. The film starts off by letting us know this piece of information, and all it takes is one simple look at Beth’s face and her demeanor to know she isn’t taking it well at all.

It’s going to be a long time until she feels even a sliver of happiness again, and she often spends her days on the couch drinking wine and sleeping to cope with the grief that comes with her husband’s loss. She can’t help but think maybe there was something she could’ve done to prevent his death. She also thinks that maybe she is guilty of transferring her depressive thoughts to him.

In one of the most chilling and haunting scenes in the film, Beth has a conversation with her best friend Claire about Owen’s suicide. Years ago, Beth was in a car accident where she was pronounced dead – but, she eventually awoke and recalls not seeing anything after death. No heaven. No hell. Nothing. What does Owen’s suicide note read? “You were right. There is nothing. Nothing is after you. You are safe now”, comforting him knowing that through death he can earn some peace.

This is not an easy movie to sit through by any means. The themes that this movie deals with are absolutely going to be too realistic and hard-hitting for many viewers and that’s totally okay. But if you feel comfortable enough watching a film with this sort of subject matter, I can almost guarantee you that you’ll be just as thrilled as I was.

Rebecca Hall is an actress that I’ve liked for some time but I’ve never been blown away by any of her performances – until now. As Beth, Hall transforms into an absolute titan of an actress, delivering what is, in my opinion, the strongest film performance since Florence Pugh in the aforementioned Midsommar. Hall is equal parts haunting and emotional throughout the course of this movie. Nothing about this performance felt fake – it felt as if I were watching an actual grief-stricken woman going through hell.

This is also one of the best-looking movies I’ve seen in years too, shot masterfully by Elisha Christian who knows exactly what to do with a camera, framing shots perfectly. Christian’s camerawork accompanied by the haunting score by Ben Lovett and David Bruckner’s phenomenal directing further boosts this film’s excellence.

The Night House is one of those rare movies that I won’t forget anytime soon at all. A film that I will want to rewatch over and over again just to feel that burst of excitement that I got from my first initial viewing. It’s going to be the gift that keeps on giving.