At some point, horror movie directors realized that the thing that sells the movie is the acting talent. The scares are fun, and the effects can be fun too, but if the actors don’t convey the terror properly, the entire production is going to fall flat on its face.
For a while (yes, I’m talking to you, the 90s), horror genre was populated by CW-pretty young people, teens and teen-adjacent actors getting sliced and diced in slashers. Which is fine, but not really what you’re hoping for. Cheap scares got nothing on the genuine dread a proper horror movie can induce. Enter James Wan and co.…did it start with Wan? A man who understood the fundamental basics of crafting a proper nightmare and the direct importance of hiring people who can act. Anyway, years later and other moviemakers seem to have gotten the formula down…and so behold the latest, The Night House. A deceptively simple story of a recently widowed woman who begins to suspect she is being haunted by the spirit of her dead husband. There are so many ways this movie could have gone. So many wrong ways. As is, it isn’t perfect by far – the pacing is too slow, the plot could use fine tuning, etc. but the moment Rebecca Hall, the movie’s lead, in on screen, you’ll forget all the detractors. I’m not sure I’ve ever been a fan, I’ve never not been a fan, she’s one of those actresses who’s always pretty good but never stood out…although for someone of her towering heights that might be the wrong choice of a description. And yet…in this movie, she is magnificent, she is mesmerizing. A woman simmering in her grief and anger and not backing down from it. A woman unmoored by a sudden inexplicable loss of her love, bewildered and terrified by all that’s going on around her and unflinching in her resolve to sort things out. This is a fine example of great casting – Hall can play unhinged and on the verge perfectly as she had proved some years ago as Christine Chubbuck – a real life story about a depressed reporter who offed herself live on-air. In this movie, her performance has that same sizzling intensity. This is her story through and through, she dominates every scene in every way. Even if it wasn’t written that way, she would have made it so. Without her, it’s an average tale of supernatural interference – smart but plodding and very sedate. With her, it’s an immersive nightmare of psychological terror. So yeah, there you go, to the scenic house by the lake and a love story gone so very, very wrong. And a perfect example of casting a movie just so.
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