Join Cam and Maggie for a discussion of David Bruckner's unnerving, masterful new horror film, The Night House. So many of our Lord of the Rings discussions have centered around echoes and twisted callbacks, and this film takes those ideas and runs a marathon with them. As a work of surreal grief horror, the story deftly avoids all the major modern tropes and pitfalls of the subgenre and brilliantly swerves into shocking, satisfying character moments. We spend a lot of time praising Rebecca Hall's knockout lead performance, which elevates the tight, efficient script with nuance, humanity, and a striking, grounded humor that we have never seen executed this well. There's also some analysis of the film's scary-smooth transitions into the dreamworld, and the narrative effect of Beth's restless journey. Reference points include Sinister, Hereditary, The Exorcist, and The Conjuring.

In our spoiler section, we unpack the film's ending with The VVitch as a touchstone, and then Cam goes on another (evidence-supported) rant about another story he likes really being a Faustus story the whole time. Is Maggie convinced? Listen to the end and find out - oh, and go support this movie. Independent, non-franchise horror is the spice of life, and the pandemic box office is pretty brutal right now.

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