House of Good and Evil

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House of Good and Evil

House of the Good and Evil demonstrates the psychological effect that severe isolation, loneliness, and grief has on a person.

7 /10

Since having the privilege to see Rachel Marie Lewis’s debut film last year (Transatlantic Coffee), I had high hopes to witness her diversity once again as an actress with this new psychological thriller written by Blu de Golyer entitled, House of Good and Evil. Lewis lived up to my expectations and surpassed them, as did the film.

The introductory scenes are very well sequenced together in order to tell the tale of a dysfunctional and abusive couple who argue with their fists instead of their words. The tone of the film is set straight early on, even if it is a little slow to get there. It is realised that the main character Maggie Conley (Rachel Marie Lewis) has a miscarriage, suggested by her screams and the blood on her hands, as a result of fighting with her husband.

What works well for House of Good and Evil was that it hooks you in right from the start, though it was difficult to see which direction the film was trying to go for. The storyline has you believe that the argumentative couple have left the claustrophobic city life in favour of the deserted countryside in order to escape their old habits and perhaps learn to control their bad temperaments and destructive personalities in an effort to save their marriage.

House of Good and Evil indie movie

It was most intriguing to me about House of Good and Evil is that throughout I could never quite grasp a full understanding of the developments that were played out; it was as if the director took great joy in playing with both Maggie’s character and the audience’s emotions. When Chris leaves Maggie to begin training for his new job as a fire-fighter in the city, you gather that it is also an effort to get some space away from his wife considering just how terrible their relationship is going. And it is evident that Maggie also realises this as well.

House of the Good and Evil demonstrates the psychological effect that severe isolation, loneliness, and grief has on a person. The film does so by portraying a female’s experience of losing her unborn child and being left alone in a large empty house with only her temperamental, yet disillusion, mind-set for company. This leads her to experience the disturbing outcomes of her imagination which are borderline horror genre worthy to witness.

This all leads up to an incredible shocking ending, which knocked me for six. There were many things that worked really well for House of Good and Evil; the acting, the location, and the near flawless script. My only criticism would be that the first few scenes seemed way too slow paced compared to the rest of the film. The slow building up of suspense could very well have be intentional though, it all depends on which genre category you place the film into. Without a doubt House of the Good and Evil was an overall solid indie film directed by David Mun and is well worth the watch, especially if you fancy something that is a little different than your run-of-the-mill horror/thriller.

House of Good and Evil Movie review

7/10
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