Whether it’s because of the script or David Bruckner’s so-so direction, its attempts at eschatological dread don’t quite stick.
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Unfortunately, the script by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski is clunky—in the convoluted nature of its reveals and also in the sometimes-baffling behavior on display.
Slashfilm by Chris Evangelista
The horror on display here is so powerful, and Hall’s work is so strong, that you’re bound to come away from The Night House properly haunted.
Great horror movies should feel unsafe, but this one just leaves you feeling beaten down.
Though this tale of a new widow’s apparent haunting gets progressively lost in a narrative maze that’s complicated without being particularly rewarding, director David Bruckner suffuses the action with enough dread and unpleasant goosings to make this an above-average genre exercise.
Bruckner’s elegantly crafted film falls some way short of its grandest ambitions, but still sends you out into the night with a chill in your bones and the hairs stiff on the back of your neck.
Holding the entire movie together, Hall delivers an exceptional performance as a woman grieving, sliding in and out of reality. But her talents are eventually no match for a runtime that stretches things a bit and story beats that we have seen before.