His House (Remi Weekes)

[Stay Puft]

HIS HOUSE
Dir. Remi Weekes



IMDb page

[Stay Puft]

The kind of ambitious debut with a lot of big ideas but no real idea of what to do with them; the social commentary and horror tropes don't even add up (it's his house, the government tells him he has to live there and can't move, and the movie devotes a lot of time to this problem, but the apeth doesn't have anything to do with the house SO ANYWAYS). The setup is rote, the twists contrived... but I'm not gonna lie, I still enjoyed it. I'm mixed overall, going with a mild yay, but as a genre exercise there's some really fun sequences here. Weekes mines regional folklore to give everything a fresh enough coat of paint, and is able to turn some of that specificity into genuinely clever and cinematic thrills (the bit with the light switch was really neat). There's some strong images throughout (I loved the first images of the apeth by the fire, holding out the knife) and the story ultimately worked for me, on an affective level, even if it was pretty flimsy overall.

[Peng]

I find the film's horror side much less effective than the core refugee story, so after the initially intriguing, rich set-up, the middle act gets somewhat repetitive and limited for me. Both sides come together in time for the grand finale though, with haunting imagery layered on top of wrenching personal drama and potent allegory so well. And the ending shot that spans around the house is a stunner. 6.5/10