His House
netflixThis Halloween could’ve seen the rise of horror franchise giants dominate the cinema - Halloween Kills and Candyman both, at some point, had mid-October release dates throughout this tumultuous year. Instead, fresh horror content is sparse and is trickling through on streaming sites rather than in theatres. On behalf of Netflix, Remi Weekes’ directorial feature debut, His House, is one such attempt.
His House is as close to a Ken Loach directed horror film audiences will ever get. Fleeing from war and poverty in South Sudan, Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) arrive in England, hoping to seek asylum. They are granted a rather unappealing home on an estate in Essex, with Mark (a welcome appearance from Doctor Who's Matt Smith) assigned as their case worker. It’s not long before Bol is terrorised by a horrific scuttling behind the peeling walls and ghostly, zombie-like figures.
Both genre threads are dropped in early. The social threat is obvious - the story centres on two migrants who face abuse within their ‘dream’ neighbourhood and are threatened with deportation if they leave this haunted house that is the supernatural threat. Bol and Rial have barely moved in before things start going bump in the night and Weekes isn’t afraid to show the horror up-close. The effects of the ghouls and the zombies creeping around the house are genuinely scary and harken back to a style not used in some time. It’s a testament to Weekes’ ability to shape atmosphere and build-up that the jump scares continue to land, long past the point of revealing the supposed monsters.
It’s all a rather clever metaphor and it’s only through flashbacks to the couple’s time in South Sudan that things start to make sense. Dirisu is thrust into the overt horror more than his on-screen partner Mosaku - he handles it well and shows a great descent into madness, whilst she takes on the role of a subdued participant. Rial’s drama and tension comes more in the participating of the day-to-day activities and her interactions with the locals. Both actors are thoroughly convincing and easy to root for.
Weekes is here to tell a story and he pulls it off with confidence and skill. Dirisu and Mosaku carry the human element of His House, but Weekes and his team have also shown talent and care with the horror element too, crafting something that is both an important social commentary and a good scary movie.