House of Darkness – review

Director: Neil LaBute

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

This was watched on the big screen at Grimmfest 2022, released fairly close to the Invitation on its theatre release. I have seen similes drawn as they both have a Dracula connection but they are very different beasts. The other is a Dracula film (even if his name is never uttered in film). For me this broadcasts its vampire status by naming the first female character we meet as Mina (Kate Bosworth), actually named Murray in the credits but not mentioned in film, and naming the second Lucy (Gia Crovatin, Van Helsing) but it isn't actually a Dracula film. There is also the ubiquitous castle (named a castle in film, though also referred to as a manor house, it is an impressively sized building) that has that vampire/castle/gothic tie but I don’t think it was made as much a part of the film generally as it might have been – it is there, it looks impressive and a door refuses to open once (and then opens on its own), but the building isn’t made a character.

arriving

And character is what this is all about. It starts with a cave and… something… in the foreground... not quite clear... but quickly we are at the estate gates opening as a car comes in and in the car are Mina and Hap (Justin Long). We don’t actually learn their names until later in the film. Hap is short for Hapgood and, when this comes out later, Mina mentions having known Hapgoods before. Hapgood is a minor name used in Stoker’s novel. It becomes readily apparent that the two have only just met and he has given her a lift home. There is a moment where there is a sound and she says it is the wind but it may have sounded like a distant howl. She invites him in.

Hap and Mina

The house lights go off just on entry and she says the electric is always cutting in and out and builds a fire in the sitting room. As he enters, he sees a person in a dark alcove addresses them but then there is no-one there, a mirror only. Perhaps Mina was correct when she suggested that out in the country people often see and hear things not there. Now, the thing with the film, is that although it throws in occasional off kilter moments it is driven by conversation mostly. Hap is drunk (his driving her home in that state is mentioned later) and somewhat clumsy. He borders on low-grade misogyny (he gets a text when Mina is making drinks and phones his friend, and the conversation is low grade locker room and overt sexual bravado that includes a request from his friend for photos of Mina – presumably compromising ones – though Hap rejects the request).

Gia Crovatin as Lucy

Mina is playing with him also, steering him to say things that are easily misconstrued as (or actually are) misogynistic dominance and Hap seems uncomfortable saying some of the things but does anyway. She also makes him admit that he can be less than truthful, when he is probably in the realm of lies through omission and little white lies. It does come out that he is separated from his wife. During a kiss Mina does bite his lip and draw blood. When Lucy appears, embarrassing Hap as he and Mina are becoming more intimate as she does so, the dynamics change – not in his favour, though he begins to assume that the sexual opportunity has become more adventurous.

falling asleep

There is a moment where Hap falls asleep and wakes beaten and tied to a chair in the cave. The cave, once he gets out of his bonds, has a burnt-out car and the thing we saw at the head of the film was a pile of men’s shoes but then he wakes in the sitting room. Which is reality? The cave relates to the lore and… Well, it takes us most of the film before we get to the lore but it is more backstory than anything and I won’t spoil it. The vampirism (broadcast through the film and its (often subtle) use of aspects of the megatext) is only overt at the very end of the film and I can’t spoil what happens with that.

Mina and Lucy

What I can say is that this is a film that will divide people, I’m sure. It is absolutely reliant on the skills of the actors who are all excellent. There are power shifts as the conversations take place but if they shift to Hap it is by consent in order to allow him to dig deeper into the hole that he doesn’t realise he is in. He is in turns embarrassed, defensive and assumptive – one gets the impression that he is ill at ease in the art of seduction. However this means the film is very talky – it could be easily reproduced on stage – and many will find this boring. I did not, I enjoyed the performances and I enjoyed the journey. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK