The Boogeyman exists! For the first time in the history of cinema, this terrifying entity gets a fresh and original makeover stemming from an original idea that makes The Night House less a horror film, and more a supernatural mystery thriller. Caution is strongly advised in the form of an R rating for this film. Not for explicit nudity, profanity or violence, but because that idea can lead to other ideas that answer specific questions behind a suicide, or even murder without motive.
The timing of this film is also precise and unapologetic, given the number of lives that have been lost due to the current and raging pandemic. Even worse is the fact that almost everyone alive today has recently lost a friend or relative to sickness, malicious intent, and even unforeseen suicide. Such is the case with Beth, struggling with loss and disbelief, just a week into her husband Owen’s suicide. With 14 years of marital bliss and no known problems, Beth starts to question her late husband’s self-inflicted death. Starting with his cryptic suicide note, pictures of strangers on his phone, inverted architectural drawings of the lake house he built, and books related to the medieval era, Beth is in for a rude awakening from the nightmare she thinks she’s in.
All the clichés we see in this film – foggy bathroom mirror scene, a character that appears possessed, sounds that go bump in the night, and a couple of highly effective jump scares – are intended for a specific purpose. And that is to overwrite everything we have seen before in films about a haunted house, demonic possessions, and even serial killer slasher films. By the time the story reaches its head spinning conclusion, viewers will realize this isn’t about a haunted house or even the ghost story it starts out to be. But while the conclusion can be baffling for some, the key to unravelling the ending is already given away in the first act of the film. Just listen carefully to the conversations Beth has with her friends.
As a follow-up to his 2018 Netflix survival horror film The Ritual, director David Bruckner maintains a death grip (pun unintended) on the atmosphere and tone from the first frame right through to the last scene of the film. Credit also goes to cinematographer Elisha Christian for amping up the mood with innovative use of negative spaces and reflective surfaces in the lake house. As Beth, Rebecca Hall anchors a blend of traumatic emotions from grief, heartbreak and anger, to numb disbelief, confusion and sarcasm, and packs it into a tight space the size of a walnut, last seen delivered by Toni Collette in the equally terrifying Hereditary. But in this film, Hall has the edge in a spectacular scene towards the end where Beth experiences both utter dread and desire…as one.
