His House is a new horror film on Netflix directed by Remi Weekes and starring Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku as a couple that are refugees from South Sudan who hope to start a new life in England. Matt Smith plays the immigration officer who tells them that they must live in a run down house to become citizens with no supplemental income. After a night at the house, it is clear that there is something malevolent in the house, which will be spoiled here.
NOT JUST ANY HAUNTED HOUSE
His House fits pretty squarely into the haunted house genre of horror films. There is an evil spirit that seems to be tied to the house, and generally all of the spooky stuff happens under the cover of nightfall. It also have a shared problem with other movies of such genre with a lack of rules of what the evil spirit can do. One moment it seems that the spirit can kill the occupants of the house at whim, and the next it seems powerless to stop them from getting away.
His House however deftly disarms those problems by making the horror deeply personal. It eschews the tropes of the traditional haunted house by not making the spirit an old man that used to live in the house, or a generic demonic spirit, but the haunting memories of what was done to get the couple to where they are now. It gives the horror a personal edge that cuts through some of the traditional faults of the genre.
WHAT IS REAL?
Unlike most haunted house movies, there is very little contact with the outside world. There are no paranormal investigators, no newsteams, and even no friends or family to come in and share in the terror. This provides ample room for interpretation and doubt as to whether the events are actually taking place. All that is proven when the immigration officer comes to inspect the house is that holes have been put in the walls. It can be because there is the ghost of a witch doctor in the house, or the pressure of conformity and the true horrors that they endured to get to England.
In other haunted house stories, there are things that are done and said that the current occupants would have no idea about the previous occupants or spirit. It leaves no question of the legitimacy of the supernatural occurances. Here, all the supernatural goings on are based on common superstition and the little girl that was killed on the way to England.
Because that is where the true horror lies. The true terrible things that happen to all refugees overshadow all other things that can happen. The mental strain of doing anything you can to survive is immense and the increased pressure of being isolated could cause hallucinations and insanity in the strongest people.
ASSIMILATION VS TRADITION
The main strain put on the relationship between Bol and Rial is the pressure to assimilate against keeping the tradition of South Sudan in their lives. It is as small as Bol trying to wear English clothes and eating with a fork and knife, and Rial complaining of the taste of metal coming from the cutlery. It comes to a head when Bol decides to burn all possessions that have ties to Sudan in an attempt to kill the past and start totally fresh and leave this witch doctor in the past. It predictably backfires as the supernatural happenings become more and more serious.
There is a lesson to be learned that neither total assimilation nor tradition is the correct course of action. We cannot totally supress the past, nor should we. Once the possessions are burned, the spirits become more powerful and malevolent. As anyone tries to bury the traumas of the past, they have ways of coming up in other, more harmful ways. But at the same time, totally unattempting to change into the new culture just heightens lonliness and isolation. There isn’t a clear cut answer, but all towards one direction is not the answer.
MEANINGFULNESS
Its this subtext is what elevates His House above the average horror flick. It may not be a movie that keeps you up at night, or has the greatest scares, but it is a movie that means something other than trying to spook with disparate scares. It says something about refugees and immigration, past and trauma, it tries to stick with the audience. Say something about the world that we live in. And that is more than most horror films even can think to be.
The Sensations of Storytelling 