Movie Review: The Night House (2020)

Synopsis: Still in a state of shock following her husband, Owen's, suicide, Beth tries to piece her life back together while still living in the house he built for them. Strange noises and visions at night prompt Beth to dig into her husband's things and she discovers he kept several secrets from her, including rendezvous with multiple women that look very much like her and a hidden house that looks just like their house, only opposite.

Who's in it? The movie stars Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Evan Jonigkeit and Stacy Martin.

Review: I had never heard of this movie until I came across it at the library a few days ago. While, from the description, I wasn't sure if it would be a movie my wife and I would enjoy, I decided to still give it a try, mostly because it was free.

After watching it yesterday evening, I can honestly say I didn't hate the movie. However, I'm not 100 percent sure I really liked it either.

I will start out by saying the mystery surrounding Beth's (Hall) husband (Jonigkeit) was a halfway decent one. Him chasing after women that looked almost exactly like her seemed like a weird obsession, especially with him taking them to a mysterious house, and I wasn't sure if he would turn out to be a serial killer or there was some other explanation for it.

The supernatural element also added a little something extra to the movie. It was one of those films (at least in my opinion) where you didn't really know if she was being haunted or if maybe someone was trying to gaslight her. In fact, I was never completely convinced her best friend, Claire (Goldberg), didn't know what was going on and/or was in on it.

Unfortunately, while the mystery element was interesting, I did think the overall movie was a bit dull, to the point I had a hard time staying interested despite being curious about her husband. I think a big part of this was the film just seemed a bit drawn out, as though the filmmakers were adding a lot of filler scenes for the sole purpose of making this a feature-length film.

I also find myself a bit undecided about the ending. It was unique, I'll give it that, but the twist also wasn't anything overly special. In fact, it was kind of predictable, especially since my wife kept thinking we've seen a similar movie before (though I couldn't figure out the movie she was talking about). Of course, to be fair, since the movie did seem to drag quite a bit toward the end, I might have just been bored by that point too.

Final Opinion: The movie does have a decent mystery and could have been a very memorable film as a result of that. However, the somewhat slow pace of the film did make it a bit of a chore to watch at times and I do feel that made the movie not as good as it could have been.

My Grade: C