The Night House
By Jeffrey M. Anderson,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Brief, intense violence against women in effective chiller.
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The Night House
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What's the Story?
In THE NIGHT HOUSE, Beth (Rebecca Hall) returns to her spacious lake house, having just buried her husband, Owen, who died via suicide. She's awakened by a knock at the door and discovers wet footprints leading from the lake to her home. Was it a nightmare? Grieving, she starts drinking and going through Owen's things. She discovers a strange sketchbook, full of odd drawings, such as a mirrored version of their home. The ultra-realistic nightmares continue, growing more and more alarming, as Beth further discovers that her husband may have been having affairs with women who resembled Beth. The mystery deepens when Beth sees the lights of a house across the lake -- a house that shouldn't be there.
Is It Any Good?
While it doesn't totally click in every way, David Bruckner's chiller still manages some truly mind-bending, soul-shuddering scares, which work largely because of Hall's wrenching performance. In its first two-thirds, The Night House uses skillful direction, set decoration, music, and editing to come up with some great shocks. A knock at the door and Richard and Linda Thompson's song "The Calvary Cross" provide some warm-up scares, but a sequence after Beth gets home from drinking at a bar with friends will make viewers' hair stand up on end. Clever use of negative space and mirror images provides more delicious jolts.
As the story begins to sharpen in focus, the scary stuff lessens, and questions arise, such as: How could Owen have embarked on such a huge building project without Beth knowing about it? A use of semi-flashbacks to explain things seems a little flat, and less interesting than the mystery itself, and a final denouement just doesn't have the intense impact it was meant to; it's almost like the punchline of a joke. But Hall helps sell every scene she's in, conveying indescribable depths of pain and horror, and, overall, there's more than enough good stuff in The Night House to make it worth a visit.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about The Night House's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
How much of the movie's violence is directed toward women? How does that change its nature and impact?
Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?
What is the movie's final takeaway? Do you think there's anything after we die? Why, or why not?
Movie Details
- In theaters: August 20, 2021
- On DVD or streaming: October 5, 2021
- Cast: Rebecca Hall , Sarah Goldberg , Vondie Curtis-Hall
- Director: David Bruckner
- Inclusion Information: Female actors
- Studio: Searchlight Pictures
- Genre: Horror
- Topics: Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Run time: 107 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: some violence/disturbing images, and language including some sexual references
- Last updated: December 25, 2022
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