His HousePuts a Fresh Coat of Terror on the Haunting Genre

After barely run away the horrors of war in South Sudan , Rial ( Lovecraft Country ’s Wunmi Mosaku ) and Bol ( Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù ) Majul have made it all the way to London and into their first home . But their apparent good luck has a terrifying downside , as Remi Weekes ’ chillingHis Housesoon reveals .

In any film about ahaunted house , the story has to explain why the people do n’t just move immediately when things take a bit for the perilously flighty . InPoltergeist , for example , the Freelings ca n’t flee until they get their touch - napped girl back . More often , though , the circumstance are economical — like the family in The Amityville Horror , who ’ve sunk every penny of their savings into what they thought would be their pipe dream habitation . The Majuls have an even more extreme version of that quandary ; due to their immigration condition , they ’re not set aside to live anyplace but the home that ’s been assigned to them .

https://gizmodo.com/the-19-scariest-freakiest-haunted-houses-in-movies-and-1819117330

Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) and Bol (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) in their new home.

Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) and Bol (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) in their new home.

Though their not - unsympathetic social worker , Mark ( Doctor Who ’s Matt Smith ) , emphasizes how prosperous they are to get an entire flat to themselves ( it ’s “ bigger than my house , ” he tells them ) , the seat has quite obviously been abandoned for some meter ; it ’s grungy , the luminance do n’t operate , there ’s trash everywhere , and the neighborhood kids have been using its G as an on - the - go toilet . Still , Rial and Bol are beatify , figuring they can fix up the shoes while they root into their raw lives . “ We will be new here , ” Bol says . “ Born again , ” his wife fit .

ataraxis proves short - live , however , and distressing echo of their late yesteryear presently catch up to them . First , it ’s singular noise , then whisper , then apparitions that are terrifying both because , well , they ’re angry ghouls that suddenly lurch out of the shadows — but also because of who and what they represent .

tap into the experiences of a refugee couple fetch a freshness to the well - worn ghost - house genre — director Weekes wrote the screenplay from a story by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables — and while His House leans rather heavily into its central metaphor , it works because the characters are so mettle - wrenchingly complex , and the performances so emotionally nuanced . In flashback , we see what Rial and Bol endured in the trail - up to their outflow from South Sudan , as well as the perilous journey itself ; their safe reaching in England is a victory , but it also carries with it grand survivor ’s guiltiness as well as mountains of post - traumatic stress . Even before they move into Casa Bad Vibes , Bol endures nightmares that are basically instant replays of his non-white remembering .

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Netflix

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Netflix

Even worse , a rift begins to grow between the couple over how they ’re align to life in London . Bol is eager to fit in and be “ one of the good ones , ” as Mark bluntly puts it , while Rial is more conservative . While most of His House takes place inside the minatory flat , Weekes does admit a few scenes to show that this not - so - fond welcome hold out beyond its wall . In a clothing store , we see a security guard hover intimately behind Bol — never approaching him directly , but there ’s no mistaking what ’s going on . When Rial gets turn around in her living accommodations complex , which seems to be populate mostly by glower white people , she ’s relieved to spot a group of Black stripling . But when she set about them for directions , they straight off make fun of her . “ We ’re not like them , ” she tells Bol , think all the non - refugees around them . “ We could be , ” he insists .

As supernatural movies often cue us , malevolent spirits are fond of latch onto people who are already in a vulnerable country . For a while , His House seems like it ’s going to be one of those movies where you ’re not indisputable if the ghosts are literal , or just exist in Bol and Rial ’s spent minds . That becomes less authoritative as the story progresses , especially after Rial delivers the line that ties the whole movie together : “ After all we ’ve die hard , after what we have discover , what men can do — you imagine it is gibbousness in the night that frighten me ? ” While “ humans are the real monsters ” is , again , a very common refrain in repulsion , it ’s deploy with unusual heft in service of this specific , exactly realized narrative .

His House hit Netflix today .

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Netflix