THE NIGHT HOUSE is a horror mystery that offers amazing visuals and the most sinister vibe. This is truly the stuff of nightmares. Rebecca Hall is scary good as the absolute star. Read our full The Night House movie review here!

THE NIGHT HOUSE is a horror mystery that originally premiered at Sundance last year, but had to wait months on end before the rest of the world could see it. Now you can finally rent it On-Demand, so we had to cover it.

I’ve been looking forward to this movie since I first heard about it and watched the trailer. It’s nothing like what I expected really, but that’s totally fine by me. It has the most sinister and eerie feeling throughout and Rebecca Hall is amazing in the lead role.

Continue reading our The Night House movie review below.

I love Rebecca Hall in horror

I definitely do like actor Rebecca Hall (The Awakening) in general, but I still feel she is exceptionally good in horror. She is just so excellent at portraying brutally honest and raw characters. The kind of person who tries to keep a nice surface but has turmoil bubbling underneath. All kinds of awful things that you know will come out.

In The Night House, she plays a widow who is now learning about the secret life of her husband. It’s some extremely disturbing stuff she learns. Also, before even getting that far, she has strange dreams and constantly wakes to music blasting and lights going on and off.

Oh yeah, this is the stuff nightmares are made of for me. Still, after having watched horror movies for the majority of my life!

Most recently, Rebecca Hall was in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) and Prime Video’s Tales from the Loop (2019). This movie is actually from in between those two. It originally premiered at Sundance in 2020, but the actual release was pushed this long due to the pandemic.

The Night House – Review | Horror Mystery

The morale of The Night House

While I love the overall vibe and style of this movie, I feel this is thanks to the work of director David Bruckner and director of photography Elisha Christian (Columbus). I was not, however, as crazy about the core storyline featuring the husband.

It’s brutal and direct, but also a bit too open to interpretation. I feel like he could easily be understood in ways I don’t personally feel is fair. And that’s all I’ll say about that to avoid spoilers.

The writers of The Night House are Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, who wrote Siren (2016), Super Dark Times (2017), and Stephanie (2017) prior to this. These are movies that have stuck with me and where I enjoy the story, so I know I like the work of these screenwriters.

Basically, I just had this weird uncomfortable feeling at the end of The Night House. And honestly, I think that was the point. My objection is that I’m not sure everyone will see it that way which scares me quite a lot.

Watch The Night House now!

David Bruckner is the director of The Night House and his name should be somewhat familiar to many horror fans by now. He directed the Netflix movie The Ritual (2017) along with the horror anthologies V/H/S (2012) and Southbound (2015).

THE LATEST V/H/S MOVIE IN THE FRANCHISE

Read our review of the Shudder addition V/H/S/94 here >

In between making his feature film debut The Ritual and The Night House, David Bruckner also directed a few segments of Creepshow. In other words, he is working with lots of horror franchises while also making his own fresh marks on the genre.

Finally, he is set to direct the next Hellraiser which we now know will star Jamie Clayton (Sense8). Something we are very excited about here at Heaven of Horror. The two screenwriters of The Night House, Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, have worked with David Bruckner several times and will also be writing on Hellraiser (2022).

Till then, you can get your horror fix and strange, twisted world visions with The Night House. Enjoy!

THE NIGHT HOUSE is out in theaters and on-demand now.

Details

Director: David Bruckner
Writers: Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski
Stars: Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Stacy Martin, Evan Jonigkeit, Stacy Martin, Vondie Curtis-Hall

Plot

Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep it together – but then nightmares come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house calling to her, beckoning her with a ghostly allure. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into her husband’s belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and disturbing – a mystery she’s determined to unravel.

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!
Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard
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