Hall’s performance, ample scares make this House worth visiting
Halloween is still over two months away, but since decorations and candy are already on the CVS shelves, we may as well be treated to a late summer horror movie release, too. That comes to us today in the form of The Night House, a somewhat uneven but mostly enjoyable frightening picture that’s also a terrific showcase for actress Rebecca Hall.
Hall, whose breakout role in 2008’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona first propelled her into the public eye, made the depth of her talent clear in the Sundance indie Christine, and now here cements her status as one of the best American actresses working today. The Night House is virtually a one-woman show, with Hall in nearly every scene. With a run time of just under two hours, the picture demands an actress who can command the screen, and Hall succeeds brilliantly, holding our attention throughout. Hall’s work is all the more impressive since she’s playing a tricky role.
As Beth, a young widow who recently lost her husband to suicide, Hall must express all the stages of grief, all while Beth is also uncovering worrying secrets about her husband and facing increasingly unsettling dreams and eerie incidents. Beth is mourning her loss, but also becoming progressively more paranoid and disturbed. What are dreams or visions, and what is reality? The viewer is often as confused as Beth, which is part of the fun of Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski’s occasionally clunky screenplay.
Director David Bruckner, whose horror cred includes The Ritual and V/H/S, does his best with the story, and the film has plenty of jump scares and OMG moments. But Collins and Piotrowski don’t seem to know how to wrap up their tale of ghosts, demons, and the occult, and the film’s ending is convoluted, silly, and not what we expected.
But up until that ending, we’re totally invested, as we wonder where Beth’s increasingly desperate look into her husband’s secret life is going to take us. And while Hall’s performance is reason enough to see the picture, the small supporting cast does solid work as well. Sarah Goldberg (Barry) brings a compassionate turn to the role of Beth’s concerned but confused best friend, and Vondie Curtis-Hall, as a widower neighbor, strikes the right balance between empathy and worry in his conversations with the slowly unraveling Beth. Finally, Evan Jonigkeit, as Beth’s husband Owen, is appropriately mysterious, as we’re not sure what to make of his intentions the more we learn about him from Beth’s investigations, memories, and dreams.
The intention of Bruckner’s picture is clear, though. He wants to scare us, and on that level, he succeeds without a shadow of a doubt — so much so that you’ll be wary of your own shadow when you walk out of this one.
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The Night House opens today at Bay Area theaters.
