There’s an argument to be made that “the real monster is trauma” has become an overused trope in modern horror. Hereditary, The Babadook, and, much less effectively, Smile, are just a few higher-profile examples. But, if you ask me, few films have deployed this trope quite as effectively as the 2020 film His House.
The film follows Bol and Rial, refugees from South Sudan, played by Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku. Both deliver the kind of incredible performances that you rarely see in a genre film like this. It’s part of what elevates His House above the standard “haunted by trauma” fare. Mosaku, in particular, shows the sort of nuance and screen presence that in a just world would guarantee superstardom.
But you don’t come to a horror film for dramatic tour de forces (that’s just a bonus), you come to it for the scares, and His House delivers. Bol and Rial are placed in a crumbling house on the outskirts of London. There are holes in the wall, the wallpaper is peeling, and the electricity is fickle. Still, it’s a home and a chance to escape the civil war and genocide engulfing their homeland.
But writer and director Remi Weekes doesn’t waste much time before ramping up the tension. There are jump scares, but much of the horror in His House comes from the claustrophobic sense of unease. There’s something in the walls, but also something in the air — not just inside the walls of the house, but on the streets of the neighborhood they’ve been placed in. There are no friendly faces. Every interaction with their new neighbors drips with menace.
Even those tasked with helping Bol and Rial, like their caseworker Mark (played by Matt Smith), can barely mask their contempt for their new arrivals. Bol tries to assimilate, but the pressures of adjusting to British culture and the guilt he feels over those he left behind, and those that did not survive the journey, drive him mad. As the film progresses, flashbacks reveal the lengths that Bol and Rial went to to escape the violence in South Sudan, and the nature of what haunts them.
His House is one of the rare films that manages to expertly blend the supernatural with real-world horror and heartbreaking drama. If you like your scares with a side of emotional gut punch, you can stream His House on Netflix.