His House (2020) Review

His House (2020) Review

Dir. Remi Weekes

 

Ken Loach meets Kubrick in this psycho-social British horror.

 

His House is a very 21st century take on the classic haunted house setup. It follows a refugee couple from war torn Sudan. Having entered England for asylum, they are shown their new accommodation by a service worker, played with blissfully mundane naïveté by an out-of-type Matt Smith. 

Soon, they are haunted by the ghosts of their past as they struggle to adapt to their new environment. 

 

For me, the horrors of humanity far outshine the hauntings in this film. The first act is relatively un-supernatural. The real shocks come from seeing the dire treatment and lack of care or support offered in the asylum system.

One would be mistaken for thinking they were watching a gritty social drama before the ghosts and screams arrive. 

Despite the heavy subject matter, this dynamic lends itself perfectly to the horror genre. The horrors of being made to feel worthless unnerve you in equal measure to the adjacent jump scares and ethereal spectres that appear.

 

This is a human horror story, and that’s what makes it so effective. It’s crucially dependent on the two central performances. Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku shine. This is their movie. Their endearing and empathetic performances are what ties down the narrative. You see them slowly broken throughout as reflections and revelations come oozing out. 

The best hauntings come from within. This was reflected well in recent horror efforts like The Haunting of Hill House; a show which personalised the scares and made them part of the character development. In His House, you see the grief and guilt of a broken family manifested. 

 

The scares are heightened by the claustrophobic scale of the production. Most of the film takes place in the small house. The viewer feels just as trapped as Bol does. It utilises it’s small, independent budget with minimalistic success. 

 

There are some incredible surreal horror moments in this film. Visuals that are so vivid and eerie that they stand out from the mundane and urban setting with beautiful contrast. Remi Weekes clearly has talent as a director and the cinematography is at times memorably effective.  

 

Horror hits harder when it’s closer to home, and it was so refreshing to see a horror film set in urban Britain. This is not the haunting of an ancient Manor House in the countryside, it’s a council estate in working class Britain where something doesn’t feel right. It feels like it could be happening a few mere miles away, yet at the same time it perfectly captures that feeling of alienation that comes from being an immigrant. Early scenes in the film show Bol and Rial trying to adapt to their new location with varying degrees of success. You see from their perspective just how unsettling and unwelcoming parts of our country can be. This is how it feels to be at the bottom of the pyramid. Lower than lower class. It’s a new hybrid of socio-political character study and psychological horror. 

 

When the scares hit, they hit with added weight. The hauntings come from within,which makes them mean more than if we were seeing a couple haunted by a random ghost with no connection to them. 

 

His House is a new, fresh take on an old formula. A smart mix of eye-opening commentary and eye-covering horror. 

 

8/10

 

Review by Elliott Thomas Griffiths