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THE NIGHT HOUSE

I tried to avoid trailers, but I couldn't help myself from watching the first 20 seconds of this movie's trailer online before I went to go see it. It was playing at the smallest theater in town, and since my ticket cost only three bucks I figured I'd give it a shot.

I had no idea I was paying $3 to see 2021's equivalent to hereditary. I would expect nothing less from the guy who brought us SOUTHBOUND and THE RITUAL


I can't talk about this movie without comparing it to hereditary, which is a good way to tell that I loved it. Both movies share themes of grief, In both movies also have some supernatural elements that are here to scare the absolute shit out of you. Hereditary was a lot more concerned with making sure you understood it's a cult subplot, and explained the entire motive behind what was happening.


This movie understands that this movie is about the cult plot at all, and focuses entirely on children a widow's perspective of grief. The biggest thing the movie has going for it is its use of silence. To show the feeling of an empty house, we often get long scenes with zero soundtracks whatsoever that emphasize just how empty the house has become since his suicide.


The only way we get any backstory about the husband is through the wife digging through old videos of them together that serves as a great way to dietetically introduce the husband's characters to the backstory without going into too much detail. It's essentially delivering three stories at once. How happy she was with her husband, the way her husband seemed just as happy, and they show how she feels now looking through old footage. Rebecca Hall gives a Tony Collette-level amazing performance in this movie, and her acting makes the entire movie that much more effective to see how these surrealist nightmares are pushing her to her absolute limits.


as far as this movie scares go, there are some of the most effective I've seen in any horror movie. Just like a panic attack, this movie goes from 0 to 100 real quick and as you pants shittingly terrified. 99% of that horror is through quite elegant surrealist-style nightmares. Beautiful scenes of The entire environment being personified with human silhouettes is a perfectly unique and unsettling way of showing the fear she now has towards every single part of her environment. That being said, about 1% is this movie attacking the caveman part of your brain that's terrified by a whole bunch of loud noise and alarms going on all at once.


Just as you start thinking this movie might be a little long in some parts, it reaches its massive Bayonetta style foot out of the screen and kicks you squarely in the dick with horror so jarring and frightening I swear to God I was an inch off my seat at least three to four times.


I feel like traditional audiences who are used to having everything solved at the end of their movies won't enjoy this one as much as I did, but if you're also a Lynch fan who doesn't mind a bit of ambiguity in your endings, this is an absolute must-watch.


I tried to admire how perfectly directed this movie is while you're in the middle of shitting your pants


10/10


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