His House (2020) Demolishes the Pillars of Cliche Storytelling
“No death, no doom, no anguish can arouse the surpassing despair which flows from a loss of identity.” — H. P. Lovecraft
The racism that underlies the slave trade is not a specter of the past. Likewise any virus, racism mutated into the new disgusting form of cultural conditioning, when the immigrants are forced to abandon their cultural identities in a blinding attempt to become “welcome”.
Did Remi Weekes make a good film?
While developing his debut film, Remi Weekes wanted, according to him, to do two things — shake up the horror genre and reflect the experience of coloured people in predominantly white Europe, as he claims, “When I, coloured, grew up in London, all the talk around was only about assimilation: how much you have to show and how much in yourself to give up for this.”
The result of these interconnected incentives is mesmerizing — many experienced filmmakers would crave to include such a laconic and intimidating film as this debut in their track record. Weekes is akin to a skilled doctor — he knows exactly what part of society is paralyzed by omnipotent systematic racism and what tools he needs to employ to stabilize this social organism.
Do spouses see ghosts — or these are just the phantoms of their traumatized imagination, caused by severe psychological trauma? Are Bol’s nightmares caused by a mysterious sorcerer — or the black mold in the home so much praised by social workers?
Flashbacks to the morbid past appear not only to intrigue the viewer but also to explain the reasons why Rial, having endured terrible hardships, is ready to return to Sudan. These reasons are by no means supernatural. However, the state in which the woman finds herself because of them brings to life mystical visions that replace reality — you cannot tell where the truth is, and where the darkness blossoms, accompanied by a bloodcurdling soundtrack.
The viewer may prefer any answer depending on the prism through which the film is analyzed. “His House” will remain the perfect horror film — even if it is framed as a social commentary, even if it is simply a hair-raiser. Everything in this film works in evil unison to perfectly complement the narrative: the rules that a social worker lists to spouses will slightly sober up social Darwinists, and scenes with ghosts can scare even those who watch horror movies in the form of bedtime stories. Have you ever been afraid of a strip of wallpaper that is hideously pilling off the wall?
The immersion in the nightmare that torments Bol and Rial is further enhanced by the intimacy of the film — there are almost no other people in it, and those that do appear in the cold frame, show no more friendliness than the ocean.
The feeling of utter loneliness adds to the film’s already eerie atmosphere, embellished by the pitch-perfect performances of the lead protagonists and a unique stylistic approach to the depiction of dreadful scenes.
In film pieces about haunted houses, people try to get out of them. Here, the paradox arises, as the spouses have nowhere to run — to leave the house means to return to the war, to stay in the house means to become demented and lose yourself in the sense of grief and guilt. Moreover, becoming assimilated requires dissolving one’s cultural values in the ocean of whiteness, thus, losing distinct identity under the pressure of White dominance.
Ultimately, “His House” is an unimprovable film that encompasses the critique of the societal parasite called systematic racism. In this case, the house acts as a visual and conceptual metaphor of the squeezing boundaries in which refugees are put to potentially become a part of the White community. However, in contradistinction to the Covid-19, the vaccine from racism can be created by each one of us — immunity initiates from within.
Final Appraisal:
STYLE: 9/10
PLOT + CHARACTERS: 9/10
ACTING: 10/10
MOOD: 9/10
Overall: 9.3/10
