31 Days of Halloween: The Night House

2020, David Bruckner (The Ritual) -- download

Marmy downloaded this and had it on the To Watch list, but I wasn't considering it fully until Kent watched it (just below; scroll!). Still not sure why he would watch a very standard haunted house / spirit from the beyond supernatural thriller, but I will let him reply to this post :)

Its not until you have watched hundreds of supernatural thrillers do you see how the tropes get used over and over. I mean, its not like the political thriller or survival thriller has a wide variety of plot types either, but lake houses and grieving loved ones play a strong part in these types of movies. The past always comes back to haunt you.

Now, you may have noticed I did not say "horror", and this is where I split hairs. Despite many scary setups and a nasty supernatural entity playing out in the movie, I didn't consider it very "horrific" so whereas Kent who does not watch horror movies very often would call this a horror, I would not. But again, fine line and I choose this side of it.

Beth's (Rebecca Hall, The Awakening) husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) kills himself just before the movie begins. We meet her as she returns from the funeral. After she throws away the unwanted casserole, like all good widows do, she begins pondering their past, watching taped videos of their wedding and raiding his brandy stash. That it was not whiskey, usually single malt, was a surprise. But maybe its because he was a snooty architect who was obviously doing well for himself. Owen shot himself in a rowboat they have moored at foot of the long stairs leading down from the house. She also ponders that empty flat lake and that foreboding rowboat.

Almost immediately she hears voices and feels a presence. Owen, of course, back from the dead or at least just on that side of the veil, and seemingly here to protect her from something. She has your requisite number of sleep walking experiences, you know the ones where the plot sets you up to believe she is actually experiencing something really scary, and then she wakes up in a location other than where she went to sleep? Something isn't right, including her finding Owen's notes about labyrinths and mirror houses; he seems to be setting up a trap for something. And then she finds the photos of women who look like her, but are not her. And plenty of them.

And then she finds the "night house", a shambles of a half built structure on the opposite side of the lake from their house. It is a mirror of their house. In it she finds a strange statue, a bound figure pierced with many spikes. Her friendly neighbour explains that he found Own wandering this area, with another woman, complaining about urges and begging him not to tell Beth. Owen's past is getting pretty fucking dark. But is the presence endangering her or is it Owen protecting her from something?

Like Kent mentioned, there are some really fun, eerie elements to how they played with the design of the house, to solidify the otherworldly presence. I noticed the silhouettes in the moulding when I was supposed to, and actually paused to point it out -- it was really neat, almost as if Owen had built this house with supernatural intent in mind, but really, I think it was just horror movie set dressing. But effective!

The summary of the movie, and I will strangely enough not spoil it, was really appealing to me. What is on the other side? Is it nothing? Is it dark or is it light? This is where the movie is going, and it all ties back to Beth's past and the twisted role Owen decided to play in it.

Now, to also comment on Kent's post. Is this "elevated horror"? When I mentioned this in my other post, my reference was to movies considered artistically or creatively above the usuals in the genre. Midsommar is a good example, and to be honest, the artistic elements surpass the plot and horror much more. To be elevated, you need to tell a horror story but in a much more critically appealing manner than the usual fare, not just going from jump scare to psyche out to eerie sound or visual, like most horror movies, and like this one did, for that sake. So, not elevated from my use of the term, in relation to horror movies. Oh, this was a good supernatural thriller, and all the elements used were effective and fun, but it was not anything more than I am used to seeing. If anything was elevated, it was Hall's performance, but considering we were introduced to her by the genre (The Awakening) I was happy to see her return here.