HIS HOUSE | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Remi Weekes (15, 93 mins)
Another superb British horror debut with a political agenda that manages to terrify and move in equal measure. Bol and Rial, a superb Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku, are refugees from wartorn South Sudan, where they have been witness to unspeakable atrocities. Finally allowed to leave their detention centre, they are housed on a grim estate, Dirisu desperate to assimilate into British culture and Mosaku still holding on to the remnants of her heritage.
Dirisu may try singing along to a song about Peter Crouch in the pub, but the roots of their journey and their origins adhere to Mosaku: she carries tribal scars that ensured safety for massacres, and a necklace given to her by her mother. Their trip across the sea to Britain has brought more with them, however – the ghosts of guilt and grief. Their delapidated house becomes home to ravaged spirits, one a ‘night witch’ who wants more from them and turns the already fractured relationship between Dirisu and Mosaku increasingly toxic.
Some truly unsettling imagery abounds in this haunted house thriller with a difference. There is brilliant sound design for the bangs and crashes of the ‘vermin’ in the walls, coupled with hideously effective jump scares at the flick of a lightswitch. Writer/director Weekes’ tremendously assured debut also has moments of nightmarish surreal beauty, as Dirisu drifts on his decaying house at sea and hands come through walls, climaxing with a hide-behind-the-cushion moment as a horrific visitor arrives. The film never relaxes its grip and couples the supernatural horrors with manmade ones: the indifference of the immigration workers (Matt Smith cameoing as one of them), the ignorant racism of their new neighbours and the inhumanity of the war in Sudan and its breakup of families.
Dirisu and Mosaku are excellent as the couple struggling to come to terms with their new life and what it has cost them, creating moments of real emotional heft. A haunted house story that has an agenda for the Brexit age, this horrific vision of the plight of refugees amidst the supernatural terror makes His House well worth visiting.
Streaming on Netflix now
words KEIRON SELF