The Night House – Captivating Psychological Horror

With the advent of recent films such as 2017’s Get Out and 2018’s Hereditary. the horror genre has seen a renaissance of sorts and have increasingly become part of the public discourse as they find horror in real life issues and themes. Despite those aforementioned films and the like setting the bar for the genre, films continue to innovate the genre by bringing ambition and new ideas to the table. While it doesn’t always work out, one can say that it’s better to try something different and fail instead of merely coasting on the same ideas and methods and getting lumped in with the rest and lost in the shuffle. Premiering at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, The Night House is a compelling psychological horror film that also serves as a master class in atmosphere and ambiance as it delivers a powerful tale about coping with grief. While that exploration wasn’t without its issues, a powerhouse lead performance from Rebecca Hall makes it all work as she takes audiences on an emotional journey worth taking.

The Night House revolves around a woman named Beth (Hall) who recently lost her husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit) to suicide. Still shaken up, she nonetheless tried her best to move on with her life as a teacher. Despite this, an ominous suicide note from her husband continued to loom large over that process. However, her best friend Claire (Goldberg) and her neighbor Mel (Curtis-Hall) couldn’t help but be concerned about her. From there, Beth began to experience a series of strange phenomena that she quickly dismissed as dreams though we as an audience certainly know that not to be the case. While going through her husband’s belongings, she quickly figured out that he had a secret life that she had no idea about. Trying to understand the circumstances leading to Owen’s death which she considered partially responsible for, Beth found herself going deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole, eventually leading into a perfect, reversed copy of her home.

Over the course of Beth’s investigation, she appeared to be guided by what seemed to be a supernatural presence as she saw glimpses of what may have happened. The line between dream and reality was a blurry one and just got blurrier. Ultimately, Beth’s inner conflict around trying to understand as a means of moving on was a compelling one to watch through the lens of a psychological horror film was compelling to watch and also uncomfortable at times thanks to some stellar sound design and camera work and impressive production design and special effects despite a lower budget. If only the film stayed in that lane a little longer than it did because despite being a slow burn, the closer it got the root of the mystery, the crazier it became. That being said, it didn’t necessarily work as it never quite connected as, without giving anything away, the lack of development beyond Beth besides all the imagery and symbolism (which may go over the heads of audiences anyway) was lacking.

Though The Night House didn’t all work, Hall was easily the best part of the film. Front and center essentially throughout, she sells the emotion of the story through an absolutely powerhouse of a performance that saw Beth put through the ringer both physically and of course emotionally. She is thrown around and was beaten down but continued to show immense strength and courage under pressure. Hall excels, showing immense range and vulnerability, as a confused and grieving woman in pain and still in shock while pushing through those feelings out of a connection that remained strong. While the film solely rested on her capable shoulders, Goldberg and Curtis-Hall were solid in limited roles as Claire and Mel respectively.

At the end of the day, The Night House is a captivating genre piece and another feather in the cap for Rebecca Hall.

still courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.