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Like their daughter popping out of nowhere in scary-ass costumes and things burn in the oven. There are also sounds of children playing, and Brian dreams he murdered his wife. Sarah is acting straight up possed, looks terrible, and decapitates her birds. House Of Darkness plays like a horror movie told secondhand by people who don't like or understand horror movies. Justin Long and Kate Bosworth star in this seductive thriller from director Neil LaBute (The Wicker Man).
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Looking to escape the stress of the city, the couple packs up with young daughter Sarah and trades the fog of San Francisco for a quiet country getaway. They don’t yet know that their new home was the site of two horrible crimes and locals still whisper about a dark presence driving its occupants to murder. But Kelly and Brian are about to find out firsthand when paranormal activity amps up and odd behavior becomes ordinary for a husband, wife, and child taking a slow descent into madness.
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Kelly hires a psychic who confirms that the house is haunted and gets the hell out of there. Kelly’s sister Jamie and her son stay with them, but the scary things keep happening. Kelly sees more kids in Halloween costumes, Brian spends time in the shed and see the neighbors walking around sexily and hooks up with the lady… or does he?
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October 31, 1957 – Two costumed trick-or-treaters knock on the door of Andrew Keating, principal of the local elementary school. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands. But hey, maybe we're better off not knowing the exact true origins of Lifetime's House of Darkness or what really happened in the end — that just makes watching it all the more terrifying.
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“Inspired by a true story,” the film starts out on Halloween 1957, so that director Patrick DeLuca can ape one of John Carpenter’s slow POV shots around a tree while a pair of trick-or-treaters shriek as they disappear into the titular, nondescript suburban house. Cut to the present, as married couple Kelly (Sara Fletcher) and Brian (Gunner Wright) explain to their marriage counselor that they are moving out of the city and into the country to work on their problems. “And Brian, do you feel that you’re over your jealousy issues? ” asks the therapist helpfully, introducing a dynamic from which the couple never wavers, as Brian looks resentful and put-upon while Kelly responds with worry and a hint of scolding. House Of Darkness, the new haunted house movie from Lifetime Movie Network, plays like a horror movie told secondhand by people who don’t like or understand horror movies. They needn’t have bothered—it’s hard to imagine who could be scared by anything in House Of Darkness, or involved on any level, for that matter.
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The only other word needed for describing anything about “House of Darkness” is “average.” All of the strangeness happening in the house isn’t given context until close to the climax. There is no initial indication if the haunting has to do with horrible history, a vengeful ghost, occult rituals, etc. Scares are thus a hollow series of fleeting shadows, bumps in the night, and slow creeps in darkness. The movie goes through these motions of standard spooky movie construction, yet the lack of effort to go beyond such basics leaves the whole thing listless. Kelly rushes home to save her family but finds Brian with an ax about to kill Sarah. The house catches on fire, and she runs to the neighbor’s house. Brian dies in the fire, and Kelly and Sarah move to a new town.
Marriage counselor Dr. Sanders tasks the couple with regularly recording private video journals as a therapy exercise. Lifetime's original thrillers tend to depict the horrors that can be lurking around the corner in everyday situations. Rarely do they venture into the supernatural — why would they, when real life can be so terrifying? However, this week's movie is a notable exception, incorporating the other worldly element that made movies like The Conjuring and The Amityville Horror so terrifying. House Of Darkness is Lifetime's answer to all of those films that made you scared to turn the lights off at night, and it might be the network's creepiest offering yet. According to Lifetime's website, House Of Darkness is based on a true story, so prepare to be even more creeped out.
Both Long and Bosworth have become familiar faces in B movie land, yet they have an opportunity to turn in career-best work here. Long takes his most ridiculous scene, the boasting phone call, and somehow makes it work, while Bosworth plays with quiet and menace and seems to relish it. All in all, this is a welcome outing for LaBute, whose career wildly derailed after his infamous previous stab at horror, The Wicker Man. Writer-director Neil LaBute returns to his low-budget indie roots with this sly, slippery study of men and women, although it loses some of its power due to familiar genre conventions.
Perhaps the person(s) responsible aren’t itching for their association to be made public. Maybe Lifetime hopes people will be too hooked by the “based on true events” tagline to notice no one admits ownership of the script. One Year Later – A new family moves into a new house built on the property. The daughter appears to sense a paranormal presence in the home.
Like LaBute's incendiary cinematic debut In the Company of Men (1997), House of Darkness uses just a few cast members -- and minimal locations -- to tell its story. The focus is on the writing and the way in which power subtly, nervily flips back and forth between characters. Advances are made, confidently, and then rebuffed with sharp comments. The movie is at its best when Hap tries to be cool, keep the conversation going, be funny, be self-effacing, etc., and Mina seems to be one jump ahead of him, asking him quietly pointed questions and diverting his intentions. In HOUSE OF DARKNESS, Hap Jackson (Justin Long) gives a woman he has met at a bar a ride home. It seems as if he and Mina (Kate Bosworth) have hit it off, but a subtle tension arises when they get to her home, which is actually a huge, ancient-looking castle.
July 7, 2014 – In order to work on their marriage, Kelly and Brian move from San Francisco with their young daughter Sarah to the countryside home formerly owned by Keating. Kelly and Brian are welcomed by their new neighbors Clark and Ellen. Brian sees Ellen as an attractive young woman and lusts after her from afar. Still struggling with jealousy issues related to Kelly’s career as a massage therapist, Brian is immediately wary of Clark, whom he sees as an attractive man.
Kelly races home as Brian threatens to harm Sarah over the phone. Brian traps Kelly in his workshop, but she uses an ax to break out. She finds her daughter safe and takes Sarah across the street to Clark and Ellen, who are revealed to be an elderly couple.
Kelly talks to a police officer about what happened, and he doesn’t believe her. He accuses Kelly of killing her husband for a three million life insurance policy. A woman suspects her house is haunted as everyone around her starts to think that she's crazy. Keeping that in mind, it stands to reason that as far as haunted house thrillers go, “House of Darkness” is understandably going to be toned down, tame, and safe enough for Sunday night prime time.
As for Kelly, Fletcher, too, is stuck playing out an under-imagined type, in her case the beleaguered perfect wife. For Kelly truly is blameless, her identical response to every situation—her husband’s drinking, her teen daughter’s increasingly odd behavior, the occasional dead pet—is a pert, long-suffering sigh, often coupled with a passive-aggressive word or two of gentle rebuke. Even her position as the sole sensible one amidst the spooky goings-on in the house is undermined by how uncurious she is when, say, she finds a smoldering hunk of unidentifiable meat in her new stove and responds with a mildly distressed shrug before tossing it into the bin.
Despite Kelly’s insistence, Brian still refuses to leave the house. Get the scoop on new movies with exclusive clips, and more when you sign up for Lifetime Movies email updates. LaBute deliberately evokes Bram Stoker with the names "Mina" and "Lucy," as well as with other elements, but this effort doesn't really seem necessary, other than providing a clever way to market the film. Additionally, the ending, while shocking and effective, makes everything that came before it less impactful.
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