HIS HOUSE
This entry, which was much heralded when it screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, starts out promisingly enough, but ultimately succumbs to trite and tedious tropes.
In the first act we are introduced to a refugee couple who have escaped from an unnamed African nation mired in civil war violence. It is presumed that they are seeking asylum in England, though we never know which city. They are given a rundown apartment in a dilapidated housing project as they await their fate in regards to citizenship.
There are some genuine creepy moments and a few solid jump scares one they being getting settled in their new home, but from there it devolves into "seen it all before" territory.
There is one really freaky sequence where the wife ventures out of the house and gets lost; it effectively captures the whole "stranger in a strange land" vibe. Plus there's a nice twist reveal just before the third act.
Ultimately, however, the film becomes a rote exercise in people who have committed an immoral act being punished and tormented by demons, both real and imagined. While it does draw upon some unfamiliar (to me, at least) African folklore, it's still a story that has been told umpteen times before in a similar manner.
Methinks the bulk of critics who applauded this film succumbed to "exotic bias," which I myself have been know to exhibit. Here, though, the routine nature of the story ends up bogging the film down.
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