Parents' Guide to The Front Room

Professionally made, well-acted, and unfussy, this glossy horror movie still feels like it doesn't really have anything going on and is built from elements we've seen many times before. The central couple in The Front Room are very put-together, but they don't seem to have thought their situation through very well. Nor do they seem to communicate much. Brandy, in her most prominent big-screen role since I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, is a force of nature, ferocious in Belinda's battles with Solange. But these two serve the plot more than they feel like real characters. Hunter, who is mostly known for her startlingly physical theatrical performances but has also earned acclaim for her uncanny performance as the Three Witches in Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, is truly creepy here, using her sinister eyes to stare people down. Unfortunately, the movie mainly uses her as a "gross old lady"—i.e. the source of gobs of yucky green spit-up, quarts of bodily excretions, and lots of excrement, often smeared on walls, objects, and clothing. It's more repugnant than it is scary.

It also begs the question: If Belinda and Norman have truly come into a bunch of money, why couldn't they hire a caretaker to help out? Most bizarre is an ending that can best be described as surprisingly ordinary, and off-puttingly average. We might wait as the credits roll for something else to happen, but, nope, that's it. Based on a short story by Susan Hill (The Woman in Black), The Front Room was written and directed by the younger brothers of Robert Eggers (The Witch)—Max and Sam Eggers—making their debut (although Max co-wrote The Lighthouse with his older brother). The Front Room has some interesting stylistic touches, but largely, disappointingly, it's without purpose.