Oh, For Fox Sake
It's been two years since Disney's acquisition of Fox, and it's still exciting to learn what's coming from it. It was enjoyable watching Deadpool and Korg sitting together in a living room, commentating on the Free Guy trailer. Somehow, it was even more fun watching Free Guy and catching all the Marvel and Star Wars easter eggs. Yet, nothing is more exciting than speculating when Marvel will bring the X-men into the MCU or MCM, whatever it's called now. There's a tiny easter egg in the new Spiderman trailer that may be suggesting that the mutant intro is just around the corner.
A week after watching Free Guy, I had the opportunity to sit down and watch yet another Disney/Fox film, The Night House. One of Disney's assets, searchlight Pictures, previously known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, released this movie. It's a studio that produces, distributes, and acquires specialty/art films. Even after being acquired by Disney, the studio still plays the same role. Searchlight Pictures received global rights to The Night House last year when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (D'Alessandro).
The Night House is one of the most well-crafted films to release this year. It's up there with The Courier and A Quiet Place Part II. The film captures one of the most outstanding on-screen performances. Rebecca Hall's level of subtle acting in this film was similar to that of Academy Award winner Emma Thompson in films like Remains of the Day and Sense and Sensibility. Rebecca Hall is sure to be recognized at the 2022 Academy Awards.
In The Night House, Hall plays Beth, who we learn from the beginning has just lost her husband. Hall's performance isn't the only subtle element of the film. The writing itself proves worthy of the ranks of pure cinema. A script with very little dialogue allows Hall to shine as she relies on facial expressions and small movements/actions to tell the story. We learn that Beth has lost her husband as we watch her dump tin-foil-wrapped lasagna into the trash can, wearing dark dress clothes. We realize it from her confused and saddened expressions as she wanders the empty house. We learn it as we watch her reach over in bed to the empty pillow next to hers.
The day after the implied funeral, Beth shows up at her teaching job. All the other teachers are alarmed to see her. Beth's co-worker friend, Claire, tells her that she didn't need to come to work. While at school, a parent approaches Beth in her classroom. The scene used dialogue to build suspense as the stereotypical Karen passive-aggressively rails into Beth for failing her son's assignment. Beth professionally explains that the student must have made up/completed the project when she was off. We, the audience, know or can infer that she was off for the funeral. Beth kindly offers to bring up the student's score. Karen continues to rail into her. We intently watch to see how Beth responds. It isn't until after constant railing from the parent and Beth trying to handle the situation professionally that Beth, with restrained emotion, clearly describes her husband's suicide. We, the audience, get to watch as crazy Karen is left speechless.
That night, Beth goes home and experiences the first of a series of lucid dreams where she hears and sees who she believes to be her husband. Beth gets drunk in an outing with her co-worker friends and reveals that she thinks her husband, Owen, is haunting her. She shares with them the suicide note that her husband had left behind, which says, "You were right. There is nothing. Nothing is after you. You're safe now." Claire drives Beth home, where Beth reveals that Owen's suicide note referred to when Beth had died in a car accident before paramedics brought her back. Instead of seeing the light or experiencing Heaven, she told Owen that nothing was after this life. Being more of a believer than her, he had a hard time accepting that.
Beth continues experiencing lucid dreams, which lead her to discover the dark secrets of Owen's past. The film becomes a well-done cosmic horror mystery film very similar to Neil Gaiman's Coraline. It keeps the audience guessing with an unpredictable plot twist.
Another big twist for me was researching the movie and finding out that they shot it on an ARRI Alexa Mini. When I wrote my review for Sound of Metal, I said that films shot on 35 mm film have a level of aesthetics that movies shot on digital can't match. Shot on an ARRI Alexa Mini, The Night House, proved me wrong. I must admit that my Sound of Metal review is guilty of the "Know it when I see it" fallacy because I didn't explain why movies shot on film look better because, well, truthfully, I didn't fully understand myself. I was, however, able to recognize that the aesthetics were nostalgic and transportive for me. The Night House had the same level of nostalgic and transportive aesthetics that Sound of Metal had. Seeing the film grain, I thought, Nice, they shot this on film. I was dead wrong.
Knives Out Cinematographer Steve Yedlin pointed out that the ARRI Alexa can attain the film look that cinephiles love. He made a Display Prep Demo which shows a scene with 35 mm film and ARRI Alexa footage side-by-side (Heller). The footage would fool anyone who claims that they know movies shot on film when they see it. The Night House definitely fooled me.
Not only were the aesthetics comparable to Sound of Metal and A Quiet Place, but so was the sound design. Now, this isn't a movie where the sound design plays an essential part in the plot like it does in the films mentioned above, but it does help with the suspense and builds on the visual story-telling. Any movie that isn't dialogue-heavy needs to rely on the sound design supplemented with the visuals to tell the story. Much like how A Quiet Place was a horror movie that used sound to frighten the audience, The Night House did that to a minor degree. Whenever Beth was alone in the house, the audience could hear all the tiny sounds as if they were in the setting themselves. I remember sitting at the edge of my seat whenever Beth's house got utterly silent. It was all purposeful. The sound design and aesthetics made this movie suspenseful, frightening, and one of the best movies to come out this year.
D’Alessandro, A. (2021, January 21). Searchlight Dates Sundance Acquisition ‘The Night House’, ‘Nightmare Alley’ & More For Later This Year. DEADLINE. https://deadline.com/2021/01/searchlight-dates-sundance-acquisition-the-night-house-nightmare-alley-more-for-later-this-year-1234677690/
Heller, C. (2020, February 6). The cinematographer of Knives Out wants to end the film vs.-digital debate. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/6/21125680/film-vs-digital-debate-movies-cinematography
