Hap Jackson
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Mar 11, 2022 · Part cautionary tale, part post-#MeToo ghost story, this sly chamber piece uses silence and darkness to its advantage, allowing audiences’ imaginations to fill in the spaces and shadows of an ...
Sep 9, 2022 · Justin Long and Kate Bosworth star in this seductive thriller from director Neil LaBute (The Wicker Man). Driving home to her secluded estate after meeting at a local bar, a player out to score ...
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- Neil Labute
- R
- SSS Entertainment
Sep 7, 2022 · House of Darkness is all about a one-night stand gone wrong, as Hap (Justin Long) takes Mina (Kate Bosworth) home from a bar. We can see Hap is not particularly interested in Mina as a person,...
- Senior Writer
Sep 8, 2022 · ‘House of Darkness’ Review: If You Prick Them, Do Bros Not Bleed? The writer-director Neil LaBute takes a crack at the post-#MeToo revenge parable but offers more irony than insight. Share ...
- It was a dark and horny night...
- What's your favorite vampire movie?
- Verdict
By Matt Fowler
Posted: Sep 9, 2022 3:46 pm
House of Darkness releases to limited theaters on Friday, Sept. 9.
Playwright-turned-filmmaker Neil LaBute leads star Justin Long to the slaughter in a gothic, chatty spin on the Bram Stoker-verse with House of Darkness. Given that LaBute's first film -- 1997's In the Company of Men -- was his own play adapted for the screen, it makes sense that House of Darkness feels like a spare stage play brought to life in a slightly bigger way, and there's a risk-taking element that's to be commended with that. But the end result is still a rather dry, one-note entanglement that doesn't offer up any reprieve for viewers who are in on the bit.
Long is at his most stumbly, bumbly self here as a cad who, for 90 minutes, is forced to explain himself over and over because of his feeble flirting and small talk while on a date with a mysterious woman played by Kate Bosworth. Long is very good at this mix of arrogance and awkwardness, as this is not his first (nor his last) time playing a s***heel who winds up in the wrong house, on the business end of horror, but House of Darkness is wears very thin over time.
Once you figure out what's in store for Long's "hoping to get lucky tonight" Hap, who has a hard time matching up his lies and insecurities with his "nice guy" persona, there's not much more at play here other than finding meager joy in Bosworth's terse, to-the-point character cutting this guy down with just a few words -- or, usually, with questions asking him to clarify his intent. LaBute made a name for himself writing about masculinity and gender disparity so watching it play out in a spooky setting is refreshing. The film itself, though, isn't able to sustain under the staging and setting, so a stagnancy sets in.
Nosferatu
Let the Right One In
The Hunger
Only Lovers Left Alive
Cronos
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
House of Darkness is unique in staging and intent but that never propels it beyond being a curiosity. The performances are solid and the experiment is more than clear but it overstays its welcome about mid-way and never offers more than new rooms of the house to explore and one more person to talk to beyond the starting duo. An argument could be ma...
House of Darkness is where male privilege finds edgy accommodation from a vindictive sisterhood – & this increasingly vicious clinch of the sexes yields nightmarish Holocaust imagery alongside...
Sep 13, 2022 · With Kate Bosworth, Justin Long, Gia Crovatin, Lucy Walters. Hap offers Mina a ride home with ulterior motives, but his night takes a turn when he learns she lives in a creepy American castle...and the shadowy figures in the corridors make it clear that he isn't welcome.
8.0/10 (1522 reviews)
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