Your ghosts follow you
Main Cast: Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku
Director: Remi Weekes
When I went to the internet trying to find the scariest movie on Netflix, it gave me a list of six or seven movies. And I’d already seen most of them. Two I hadn’t seen, though, were INCANTATION and this one. HIS HOUSE was about 25 minutes shorter, so I picked it. Plus, it’s been in my queue for years. I’ve meaning to watch this movie for a long time.
HIS HOUSE is about Bol and Rial Majur, Sudanese refugees who moved to the UK and set up in housing that’s seen better days. But to Bol and Rial, the two-story house is a palace compared to the one room they’d been sharing with another refugee. But this is a horror movie, so it doesn’t take long for the noises to start. Bol is having very vivid dreams of their escape from their war-torn home while Rial is hearing voices promising to bring back their daughter who died on their journey.
I very much enjoyed this movie, owing mostly to the performances of the two main actors. Sope Dirisu is new to me and I kept thinking he was Jonathan Majors—personal problems aside, Majors is a great actor and the two could be brothers—while Wunmi Mosaku (who was Annie in SINNERS) hasn’t turned in a dud performance yet that I’ve seen. Adding to the mix is a very put-upon Matt Smith who is miles away from the Doctor as Mark, the caseworker in charge of the Majurs.
The heart of any ghost story worth its weight is always the same: what does the ghost want. But HIS HOUSE goes one step further by mixing in some native folklore, and by hiding one very crucial plot element from the audience—and even from the characters—for most of the movie until that reveal is sure to have the most impact.
I’m afraid of giving away too many plot details and spoiling the movie, but suffice it to say I had a great time with this movie. I had the speakers on and the sound design played a HUGE part in this one, adding to the effect of the ghosts or whatever’s haunting their house. The set design, too; the house plays such a big part as well as it slowly begins to deteriorate around the couple.
This is the first—and to date only—full-length feature from writer/director Remi Weekes, who wrote this one from a story by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables, none of whom had done anything before and very little since. But I remember HIS HOUSE getting a lot of hype and attention when it first came out; maybe that’s afforded them all the opportunity to be more selective the next time around. Or maybe they only had the one thing in them. I can’t say. But if this IS the only movie of substance they ever make, then this would be a good one to come in and go out on; I thoroughly dug it and can’t believe it sat untouched on Netflix for so long before I finally sat down and made time for it. Lesson learned.
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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