Film Review: THE NIGHT HOUSE (2020): Rebecca Hall Amazes in a Suspenseful Ghost Story

The Night House Review

The Night House (2020) Film Review, a movie directed by David Bruckner and starring Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Evan Jonigkeit, Stacy Martin, David Abeles, Christina Jackson, Patrick Klein, Crystal Swann, Laura Austin, Jacob Garrett White, Samantha Buck, Lydia Hand, Lea Enslin, Allie McCulloch and Amy Zubieta.

Rebecca Hall stars in the new horror film The Night House which is a ghost story that will hold your interest from beginning to end thanks to Hall’s top notch performance. Ghost movies have been hit or miss lately (mostly miss, actually) but the quality of the new movie directed by David Bruckner overrides some of the more familiar elements found in the picture. Hall is the reason why. She creates an interesting character who finds herself in a tragic situation as the film begins.

Hall stars as a teacher named Beth whose husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit) committed suicide with a gun she didn’t know he owned. Beth is affected beyond a reasonable doubt by her late husband’s actions. When the mom of one of her students questions a grade Beth gave the child, Beth responds erratically going as far as to offer the student an “A” over the “C” the student probably really earned. People sympathize with Beth’s predicament, however. Her best friend Claire (Sarah Goldberg) tries to console her as does a neighbor named Mel (well played by Vondie Curtis-Hall). The creepiness begins when Beth gets a text message from her dead husband and after this happens, the audience realizes this is a ghost movie where the psychological elements of it will play a key factor in the plot.

This is the kind of movie where creepy artifacts and passages in books that point to the supernatural appear. Set in and around Beth’s lake house, the plot develops slowly but steadily. Some of the best sequences revolve around the fact that the dead husband was photographing brunettes who had an eerie physical resemblance to Beth. When Beth goes to a bookstore to seek out answers and confronts one of the girls from the photographs, Madelyne (nicely played by Stacy Martin), she comes across as rather obsessed. However, we understand that Beth wants (and needs) answers regarding her late husband and his potential extramarital affairs.

The supporting cast is all fine. Jacob Garrett White has a quick but fun role as a bookstore employee and Sarah Goldberg makes for a rational confidante of Beth’s. Vondie Curtis-Hall’s character is well written and provides Beth with some hints to the possibilities of what was going on with her deceased husband while he was alive. Curtis-Hall has some of the better scenes in the picture out of actors in the supporting cast as Mel tries to offer some peace of mind to the solemn and intense Beth.

This movie is Rebecca Hall’s show from beginning to end, though. She has a lot of vulnerability on screen which makes the audience open up to the emotions her character feels throughout. There are some supernatural scenes which help give the character some eerie unpredictability which keeps the viewer watching and wondering whether or not what’s going on is more complex than it seems on its surface. It indeed is as the movie provides some intense emotion and blue and red background lighting that symbolizes life and death in certain scenes towards the end. Or it heaven and hell the colors represent? See the movie to find out.

The Night House provides more questions at the end than it does answers but is a movie that is worth seeing for the compelling Hall’s screen presence. She almost carries the weight of the entire movie on her shoulders and it should be noted that she doesn’t flinch when it comes to difficult subject matter that is being portrayed on screen.

For those looking for a good haunted lake house movie, you can’t beat The Night House which offers thrills, chills and one intense leading performance by the always reliable Hall. There are times in the film where you may feel you’ve seen it all before but, trust me, you haven’t.

Rating: 7/10

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