Late Night, Backyard Screening: THE NIGHT HOUSE

I watched THE NIGHT HOUSE alone, no one else home, in my backyard, after 10pm, with only the light of the firepit to accompany the glow of my laptop screen.  This was a terrible idea for someone like me who’s a horror lightweight.  If you’re a regular reader of T&T, you know you’ll rarely find me discussing a scary movie.  I can do ghostly, eerie like Guillermo del Toro produced MAMA, or Nicole Kidman‘s classic, THE OTHERS or more Sci-fi oriented like Jordan Peele‘s GET OUT or US; although I have no intentions of watching his upcoming CANDYMAN.  I wasn’t quite sure where THE NIGHT HOUSE would land (written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski and directed by David Bruckner) but I am a fan of Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Town, Tumble Down, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Iron Man 3, Godzilla vs. Kong).  I like that she’s a smart-ass and rather caustic in this movie. No issues with her performance; but ultimately, the reason behind the haunting was too scary for me!  T&T @LAMB rating: 3.5 outta 5

Round Up of Reviews from my fellow Critics from
Philadelphia Film Critics Circle & The LAMB Members

It stars Rebecca Hall as Beth, a recently widowed woman who lives alone in a lakeside home that appears to be haunted, possibly by her recently deceased husband (Evan Jonigkeit), who committed an inexplicable suicide. The supporting cast includes both a neighbor (veteran character actor Vondie Curtis-Hall) and her best friend (Sarah Goldberg, from Barry.) We’re meant to wonder if she’s actually being haunted, or merely suffering from bad dreams, or perhaps depression or alcoholism… READ MORE by Stephen Silver for TILT

It reads a bit like a Lifetime thriller, but The Night House is all about atmosphere. Among the many debts it owes to The Shining is its use of what we’ll call “architectural horror”: Backward numbers on clocks suggest a blurred line between dreams and waking hours. Sinister shapes form between household fixtures when approached from just the right angle. Even the architecture of the movie’s editing is unsettling. There are no real monsters or jump scares in The Night House, though, just a sense of creeping dread that Beth’s reality is betraying her, a feeling reinforced by her discovery of the titular night house… READ MORE by Rob DiCristino for F This Movie

“Rebecca Hall gives a commanding turn as a widow in the midst of a haunting in this kaleidoscopic maelstrom of scares. Director David Bruckner uses all the tools at his disposal to crank the terror up to extreme levels in ‘The Night House’ while still delivering a movie that’s grounded in earnest human emotion.” 4.5/5  READ MORE  by Matt Oakes Silver Screen Riots