First Things First…
I usually don’t get scared by horror movies too easily. But when this was coming out last year, even the commercials freaked me out. I still don’t know many plot details, but something about a big grin being forever plastered on someone’s face is genuinely frightening. It’s psychotic behavior. What would a person who literally won’t stop smiling at you—at all—actually do to you?
That said, I’m excited to watch something I think has a chance to really scare me, but I’ll be honest… I’ve got a little trepidation, too. The Haunting of Hill House really got under my skin a few years ago, and since then I feel like I’ve lost my ability to shake off scares quickly.
3 Things I Like
3. The Only One to Break the Chain
This detour in the investigation is really effective.
As Joel follows the trail of suicides who witnessed a gruesome suicide themselves first, he discovers one break in the chain that otherwise goes back at least 20 deep…
Robert Talley.
This is our hope spot. Without having at least one survivor of this curse, Rose’s situation would be utterly hopeless. But here, we get to think she has a chance—even if that chance, according to Talley, is for her to commit a gruesome murder herself in front of another witness—dooming someone else with this curse while ridding herself of it.
This scene is brilliantly played by Rob Morgan, who’s so good in limited screentime on Stranger Things and Winning Time.
At first, he seems a little unsettled and fidgety, but relatively calm. It didn’t occur to me at that point why Rose lies to him and tells him she’s just trying to help one of her patients who has the curse. But when she slips and reveals she’s the one who’s cursed, Talley freaks out. Even though he knows the only way he’d get the curse back is if Rose murders someone there and then, in front of him, he wants no part of it being anywhere near him. Can’t say I blame him.
2. Fakeouts
They got me good. Twice.
The first time is when Rose is talking with her therapist in her living room—but when she answers the phone and her therapist is on the other line, she realizes she actually let the “entity” in her house and has been sitting there chatting with it. My goosebumps are literally coming back up now as I type this.
Then, there’s the scene right before the end, when we’re led to believe Rose rid herself of the curse and escaped her childhood home as it burned down.
This time, it seems like she might be able to get back with Joel, her ex, who is the only one to believe in her and help her this whole time. Until he’s revealed as an illusion/delusion and starts smiling like a maniac.
I should’ve known better, because until this reveal, I was thinking how nonsensical it was that what she did actually worked to get rid of the curse.
But nope—they nailed me again.
1. A Simple, Effective “Hook”
I can’t think of a simpler, more effective hook for a horror movie than turning a smile—one of our universal signs of love, happiness, joy, and all the good things—into something so sinister, terrifying, and deadly.
The constant threat of seeing one of these creepy smiles, either in the background of the shot or right in my face, had me unnerved most of the movie.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. How It Gets In
When we first see the physical manifestation of the entity, I thought it looked kinda ridiculous. But at it moves its obscenely long limbs around, and as its smile stays front and center, I realized it’s pretty freaky.
But, when we discover Rose didn’t rid herself of it after all, we see how it finally “enters” her (man, that sounds dirty and gross). This part IS pretty ridiculous. I can give it a bit of a pass because it’s a scary creature, but something giant like that enlarging her mouth so it can get in didn’t really work for me.
2 Things I Don’t Like
2. Confronting Her Trauma
I think Rose’s idea is that, because this entity feeds on trauma, if she finally confronts the trauma she experienced as a kid regarding her mother, she’ll rid herself of it without having to either succumb and kill herself or kill someone else to pass it on.
There are two problems I see with this, though…
The first is that, having never dealt with her trauma her whole life—especially when we discover she’s burdened by guilt because she chose not to call the police for help when her mother overdosed and begged her to—she was never going to heal her wounds in one night.
The other, though, is that even when she has her conversation with her mother—the entity in disguise—what does she even do to try to heal? Simply acknowledging she shouldn’t have to feel guilty because her mother was a monster? That might be a start, but it doesn’t feel like nearly enough to get over anything.
1. This Could’ve Been Great at a Tight 90
Such a simple premise—especially in a horror film—doesn’t need to be two hours. This would’ve been ideal at 90 minutes.
The movie slows down at times, and there are some unnecessary pieces that could’ve easily been cut.
I mean, do we even need Trevor?
The storyline of Rose’s fiancé who can’t stand having anything break up his perfect little life is a dud. And we don’t know enough about him to even see how that’s true. He could’ve been cut, and she still could’ve gone to Joel, her ex, for help without the story losing anything. This might make the idea of Rose putting up walls to protect herself even more resonant if she was single.
Tim Matassa
