Concept: A refugee couple recently arrived from Africa find that the ghosts of their trauma follow them to London.

• The haunted house is the setting, but it is not truly a horror movie; it’s more of a drama with supernatural overtones.
• I’ve seen tons of haunted house movies, to the point where it’s nearly impossible for me to get scared by one any more. But that’s OK; a movie like this isn’t rated on some scare level, but on its overall quality. And with that, this movie scores high.
• The movie reminds me of “The Twilight Zone” series, Rod Serling’s original version, in which he would often use sci-fi and horror conventions to get across a social commentary.
• This movie has a lot to say on the modern immigrant experience, the refugee crisis around the world, the human condition, and racism. But it’s mainly about the ghosts of our trauma, and how those ghosts haunt us. In that specific sense, the movie touches on a universal emotional truth about severe loss and traumatic experience. A really, really good move overall.
• The sound stage is critical in any haunted house movie; the sound effects need to be present, all the squeaks and bumps in the night and mysterious noises, in order to create the proper atmosphere, and it all has to be distributed throughout the spatial area in a home theater set-up; it can’t all be front-channel. In fact, the sound is at least as critical as any visual effects, if not more so, in a haunted house movie. And this movie delivers, providing those creepy bumps from behind, from the sides.
• Not for kids
• Viewed on an Optoma HD28DSE projector, 92” screen, Netflix on Amazon Cube.

His House (2020) 85%