His House Review

2020 has yet to pull out an indie horror hit to rival those of previous years – every year since 2014’s The Babadook has had at least one – and perhaps it won’t overall, as the end of the year is upon us. The Invisible Man may been a critical and commercial success, but it didn’t have the same artful, indie energy as films like Get Out, Hereditary and Midsommar.His House fits neatly into that category of film, and is almost the indie horror cult classic I was waiting for this year. Almost. There’s a ton going for this movie, but it doesn’t quite come together the way it should. Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed my experience with it, and as it’s free to stream on Netflix, it’s definitely worth a watch.

His House follows refugee couple Bol and Rial as they flee the horrors of war-torn South Sudan. It’s the directorial debut of Remi Weekes, and stars Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu as Rial and Bol respectively. The three of them work to bring a well-shot, powerfully acted and brilliantly layered story of trauma, survivor’s guilt and the refugee experience to life.

Bol and Rial have fled Sudan, crossed the Mediterranean and found asylum in Great Britain. The government supposedly takes care of them while their citizenship is processed, but they are isolated and alone in a rundown house that is still bigger than what most other people they interact with have. Tensions between the two arise as Bol, desperate to leave behind his memories and assimilate into British culture, begins to move away from their traditions and speaking with an almost pathetically desperate optimism about the future. Rial, on the other hand, is unwilling or unable to leave behind her home and those she’s lost – including their daughter, who drowned on the voyage across the sea.

Even without the horror, this brings to the forefront the hellish truth about the refugee experience; that so many seemed doomed to exist in a sort of limbo, unable to return to their home full of death and horror, and yet unable to assimilate into a culture so foreign to them in a place where they are clearly not wanted. Then, of course, the horror kicks in. It becomes apparent that something is living in their home; a malicious force that has followed them from Africa. It whispers into Rial’s ear, promising reunion with her daughter, while tormenting Bol with visions of the dead that they left behind. Naturally, things spiral out of control from there.

There is a bit of an over-reliance on bad CGI at times, particularly when the central evil finally reveals itself, but there are still a number of quality scares. Faces stare from holes in the walls, voices whisper from cracks, the dead rise in their home in search of vengeance, and it’s clear that the couple is hiding a dark secret. The most striking scene was a sort of séance between Bol and the entity. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but this scene is truly chilling. Elsewhere, I kept finding myself coming back to thoughts of the Mediterranean, and the refugees that didn’t survive its crossing. How many skeletons line the bottom of that ocean? How many people died needlessly in search of a better life?

The nature of the entity that haunts their house is not something I wish to spoil in this review, but it’s a fresh concept rooted in African folklore and culture. As much as I love traditional hauntings, demons and Western monsters, we need more diverse perspectives if we are going to keep horror fresh.

Unfortunately, His House suffers in its final act. It really could have used more time to flesh this part of the film out, as a lot of the revelations and events of the final 20 minutes in particular feel very rushed, and the ending is just a bit too clean, considering the revelations uncovered in the finale. Some truly horrific war flashbacks and a truly powerful set of final images keep it just afloat, but only barely.

It’s this relative fizzle of an ending and an overall roughness around this film’s edges that really keep this from being an absolute hit, but it’s nonetheless a frightening and powerful experience that I’d recommend to any horror fan. Like nearly every other genre, horror is in drastic need of diverse perspectives and experiences like this one.