A good haunted house story is all about atmosphere; the plot should matter relatively little when considering whether it works. So it’s a bit of a problem that this feature directing debut from
The Orphanage screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez seems so focused on playing coy with its twists. Set for no particularly good reason in 1969, it begins as an ailing woman (Nicola Harrison) and her four children arrive in America from England, fleeing an unnamed threatening “him” for her long-abandoned family estate, Marrowbone. When she dies, oldest son Jack (George MacKay) must keep a promise to hold the family together—and after a six-month jump in time, it’s clear that
something is threatening them. Sánchez adds Anya Taylor-Joy as a romantic interest for Jack, and provides a few solid set pieces built around scuttling sounds and the sudden appearance of gnarled hands. But he also spends far less time crafting truly effective chills than he does on the psychological thriller foundation of his story, while making us wait 90 minutes for a ridiculously obvious revelation. The scariest things might be the things in our heads, but they need to be in
our heads, not just the characters’.
By
Scott Renshaw