Netflix’s latest addition to the horror genre is first time filmmaker, Remi Weekes’, complex and haunting film, His House, in which a young refugee couple (Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirsu) faces the hardships of adjusting to their new “haunted” English home after escaping war-torn Sudan.
Although His House features jump scares and terror around ever harrowing corridor, the true horror is the hell this couple endured to make it to their new home.
By no means, His House is not an easy watch. The story is unsettling, thought-provoking and heartbreaking. However, its authenticity in storytelling is successfully conveyed on the screen.
The entire emotional rollercoaster of immigrating is delicately captured and portrayed through the film’s protagonists — who are each so powerful. We can identify with their glimmering hope of a new start, in a new country, yet feel the immense weight guilt and trauma of their demons haunting the two, lingering in every shot.
Weekes successfully crafts a horror film that can give thrill junkies dread and fear while challenging the viewer to understand the brutality, guilt and mental anguish refugees experience. Weekes doesn’t lose sight of the genuine emotions our protagonists are feeling, no matter how painful.
His House does not shy away from wanting to have that difficult conversation with its audience, and for that, I must applaud it.
Final Thoughts: His House is a complex, heartbreaking and thrilling ghost story that will challenge you to open your eyes to another chapter in the horrors of humanity.
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