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HIS HOUSE (2020)

Director; Remi Weekes

Stars: Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku, Matt Smith

Runtime: 93min

 

His House is the feature debut of director Remi Weekes and marks him out as someone to watch. There is a calm assurance about the direction which means that even as events in the film spiral out of the protagonists' control the story is still clear and controlled. This is a very impressive piece of work.

The story centres on a Sudanese refugee couple Rial and Bol who are given asylum in Britain. They are still effectively on "bail" so have strict conditions including not working and not leaving the house which is assigned to them. There are tensions from the unfriendly reaction of locals. A group of black street kids tell her to "go back to Africa".

Even before the couple move into their house your heart has been broken by their situation, making the slow reveals that the film springs on you even more potent. 

We have already learnt from the incredibly concise and well-handled opening that they have a dead daughter. Both seem to be suffering PTSD from the terrible conditions in their homeland and the brutal journey. And the couple seems to have brought something with them on their travels as the two are tormented inside the run-down house by ghosts and apparitions who live in the walls but can inflict real physical harm.

Using elements of Sudanese myth the couple are haunted by an ‘apeth’ or ‘night witch’ who has risen from the ocean and wants them to atone for their sins. Or is it their imagination? There is a twist and there is a real examination of guilt going on as the film keeps its delicate balance between the internal and external, the real and the supernatural.  

There is so much to admire here. The cinematography is subtle and outstanding; the direction, the blocking, the sparse yet potent dialogue, are all spot on. Even the colour schemes add to the effect, with a brief shopping centre trip being as unnerving with its white sterile strangeness as an early Cronenberg film.

Bottom line: excellent stuff. From a pure horror perspective it may not shock and scare the way a film like Hereditary did but this is little gem of a story. I can't wait to see what Remi Weekes does next.