His House (2020) - contains spoilers

[holyzombiejesus]

Horror about 2 asylum seekers from Sudan. They make the treacherous journey to the UK, losing their daughter in the process, and are then given a shitty house in a dodgy estate. Then shit happens.

I thought the first ten minutes set up a really interesting looking film. The whole experience of seeking asylum, from the persecution in the home land, to the journey to 'safety' and then the inhumane treatment, illogical processes and inherent racism once they arrive. But this film only really touched on that and veered more towards clichéd Blumhouse-style jump scares and silly monsters. There's a bit where it looks like the film might be more interesting and the female is walking round a maze-like council estate but that lasts one scene and then forgotten. Likewise, the horrible weird neighbour only seems to exist for the purpose of a couple of eerie shots.

Having said that, I enjoyed the film. I just think it could have been brilliant rather than OK.

[wooders1978]

Watched it and must say you have described how I felt about it word for word perfectly - it's sort of almost really good, got irritated by the jump scares

[mjwilson]

I thought this was really strong. I liked the way that it avoided some of the more obvious routes for the storytelling, and that the horror was rooted in their experiences and actions. The late "twist" is the good kind of twist, not an M Night "a ha" moment, just something that puts a lot of the first half of the film into context.

[ImmaculateClump]

Yeah, I really didn't think much of this at all. I think people are reviewing the worthy intentions rather than the film itself.
It's pretty ineffectual as a horror and really heavy handed with the subtext.
Like you say, it could and should have been great.

The stuff during the daytime was the best, but that scene with the labyrinthine streets and the reappearing kid, it should have gone on a lot longer and the music should have slowly built. Instead it was just cranked up high from the beginning and it all just peters out.

The pacing was all off, they never took the time to build any tension except when they needed to just enough to fart out a weak jump scare.

Really average stuff. Everyone else I've seen talking about it online was wetting their knickers over it. Thank you holyzombiejesus! I was starting to doubt my sanity!

[holyzombiejesus]

My favourite bit was him watching Stoke in the pub and singing along with those blokes.

Thought the scene where the 3 black kids were racist towards the woman was a bit odd. Still not sure what to make of that bit, it really clanged. The part where he was watched by the store detective was shit and seemed to be badly edited and the monster at the end just made me sigh.

On a positive, I thought the film looked really nice.

[TrenterPercenter]

Disagree with a lot of what is being said here.

The film is solid and the two leads doing an incredible job of acting, playing their roles pretty much perfectly.  Script was great and the film wasn't any longer than it needed to be.

It is neither meant to be or is a standard horror (which I pretty much gathered from scant reading of other peoples reviews) it's a psychological drama/thriller with some horror elements.  It's also clearly an allegory on mental health and displacement, the "horror" is in actually understanding that.   All horrors are allegories for emotions and anxities it's just perhaps this potrayal was has a bit more going on in it and displacement probably isn't going to resonate much with some people.  Anyway long and short of it is if you were watching this film and appraising it on "how many killings" then I think you were just looking for another kind of horror.

Scene with the young black lads was a nod to displacement - she is being told to "go back to Africa" from people that have since lost their connection.

Overall the film for me put me very much in mind of Dead Man's Shoes, another psychological thriller which is an excellent film at making you feel the grime that the characters are living through.  It's a British shoestring budget screenplay made into a film so it isn't going to be perfect or able to do everything, but it's one of those films that you just think could only be made in Britain and the emotives are strong (largely down to some brilliant acting).

Also, can just point out it's rare when films get made that actually discuss things like poverty or have actual realistic representations (Well as much as is allowed) of working class people in them so it's a shame to see people thinking it's only praise is because of its "worthy intentions".  It isn't perfect but it's funny how this film is being over considered in this sense, perhaps it got under the skin a bit, and not in a nice comfortable jump scare ghost train fashion that is easy to deal with.

It's a very good film.