Log in Subscribe

Movie Reviews: His House

Posted

Well, it’s a short week thanks to Veterans Day, so for better or worse it’s gonna be a bit of a shorter column this time around.

To be honest, I forgot The Purcell Register was publishing a day early over the weekend, so I didn’t quite have the time set aside for writing like I usually do.

Still, I managed to quickly write about one of the movies I watched this week.

So without further ado, let’s get right to it.

***

The only movie this week is “His House.”

After making a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, refugee couple Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface.

This is a fascinating film in a couple respects.

First of all, I can’t say I’ve seen many movies featuring characters dealing with the harrowing experience of being forced to flee their country, leaving all they know behind, out of sheer desperation to survive.

It’s obvious that doing so would be an incredibly traumatizing experience, yet it’s rarely a topic I see explored in movies, at least ones that become mainstream.

Sure, there’s plenty of narratives that revolve around someone immigrating to a new country, and adapting to a completely new culture, but I seldom see stories revolving around the long lasting mental scars that would come escaping a war-torn region.

The second aspect that makes this movie interesting is that it isn’t just a simple drama exploring the experience of a refugee couple.

It’s a horror movie.

The post-traumatic anxiety these characters encounter is visually presented in much the same way as you’d see in a horror-thriller.

Both Bol and Rial are troubled by apparitions of those they left behind, the most notable of which being their daughter Nyagak (Malaika Abigaba), who didn’t survive their harrowing journey.

The couple also seems to be tormented by a creature known as an apeth or a “night witch.”

Throughout the film, Bol is subjected to a number of horrors, including seeing people hiding behind the walls in his house, even going as far as being attacked by the unknown phantoms whenever the lights go out.

All this while Bol and Rial are fighting just to stay in the country.

It’s made very clear right from the beginning that one minor slip-up will cost the two of them everything, and they’ll be shipped straight back where they came from.

As if the hardships they faced during the journey weren’t enough, now they have to be treated like criminals in a new, unfamiliar country, all for the terrible crime of trying to survive.

The two of them are forced to live in a rundown house that looks straight out of a horror film. The place is absolutely covered in grime, the wallpaper is peeling, there’s holes in the wall, and there’s trash everywhere.

Despite those facts, they’re told repeatedly by government officials how lucky they are to have such a nice big house. As if they should be grateful for being forced to live in a slum.

Through all this hardship, Bol still desperately wants to assimilate into this new culture. He needs this new life of theirs to work out because he knows the life threatening consequences if he doesn’t.

Rial on the other hand feels a distinct need to return to their home country, to something more familiar despite how harrowing their escape from South Sudan was.

And who can blame her?

Change, even under the best scenarios, can be incredibly difficult. Imagine leaving everything and everyone you ever knew and going to a new, unfamiliar country where you can barely even understand the language.

It’d be unimaginably rough, and during a transition period like this I could see looking back at a past life, even one in a war-torn region, with rose tinted glasses.

Now while I do appreciate this film for showing me a perspective I’ve rarely seen in other movies, I know it definitely won’t be for everyone.

While it certainly is a horror movie, especially in how it’s filmed and its general aesthetic, those seeking a straight up horror will likely find “His House” disappointing as the scares are less frequent than most feature films in this genre.

On the other hand, I could see a lot of people interested in watching a story about refugees and their hardships, only to be turned off by the general horror trappings.

I guess that’s the price you pay for making a film that straddles genres like this one does. It’s hard to make everyone happy.

That said, if you can overcome your expectations of what a horror movie is supposed to be, and see this film for what it is, a refugee story presented in the genre of horror, then I think there’s definitely a worthwhile experience to be had.

“His House” is rated TV-14 and is available to stream on Netflix.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here