The Night House

This year's selection of films in competition at the Deauville American Film Festival covered a wide range of genres, including horror with David Bruckner's second feature (The Ritual (2017)). The screenplay by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski cleverly revisits the theme of the haunted house but also addresses that of grief and psychological reconstruction after the loss of a loved one. 

Beth (Rebecca Hall) finds herself alone in her lake house after the death of her husband, who had built it. She tries to stay on course, but is plagued by nightmares and incomprehensible events. As disturbing visions of a presence in the house multiply and draw her under their sway, Beth has no choice but to find an explanation for the events that seem to be unleashed and connected to her past.  As she begins to delve into her late husband's belongings, she realizes that she didn't know a certain violent part of him and her research on women who look like him. 

Far from being a simple horrific film revolving around a haunted house, The Night House is oriented towards the psychological thriller and allows the actress Rebecca Hall to show once again that she is an excellent actress as comfortable in a comedy as in a psychological drama as here. The director David Bruckner, in spite of limited means, manages to hold our attention throughout this film and especially to really scare us during some perfectly brought scenes. The disturbing environment of the film creates a certain fascination and the fast pace of the film makes us follow the character Beth with attention and try to understand the origin of this invisible entity that seems to be unleashed against her. The many clues scattered throughout the film make us try to reconstruct a real puzzle until the final denouement showing us how Beth's husband died and what is the origin of this diabolical creature that seems to really want to kill Beth.

By putting grief at the very center of the story and the action practically in a house and its close surroundings, The Night House is not just another horror film with a never-ending barrage of violent scenes and blood gushing onto the screen without measure. Built in the same way as the horror classics of the 70s and 80s, this film stands out as a truly intense cinematic experience. Director David Bruckner has surrounded himself with an excellent cinematographer to take care of the image of his film but also with his usual composer Ben Lovett to reinforce the eerie atmosphere of the film. Certainly, The Night House was one of the excellent surprises of the Deauville American Film Festival and we can only encourage you to discover it in theaters despite its late release in France.

The Night House
Directed by David Bruckner
Written by Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski
Produced by David S. Goyer, Keith Levine, John Zois
Starring Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Evan Jonigkeit, Stacy Martin, Vondie Curtis-Hall
Cinematography : Elisha Christian
Edited by David Marks
Music by Ben Lovett
Production companies : Anton, Phantom Four Films
Distributed by Searchlight Pictures (United States), The Walt Disney Company (France)
Release date : January 24, 2020 (Sundance), August 20, 2021 (United States), September 15, 2021 (France)
Running time : 110 minutes

Seen on September 6, 2021 at the Centre International de Deauville

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