His House

Husband and wife Sudanese refugees in England go up in front of a cold-bordering-on-hostile asylum review board, who give them a house to live in along with a bunch of extremely strict rules designed to make them miserable and prevent them from leading any kind of normal life. The house is haunted, but if they leave it or even let on that anything is wrong, they'll be sent back to die.

This premise is a perfect example of what horror can do. The haunting and the reasons why they're stuck with it illuminate the real-life horrors of what they fled and how they're treated in their new country; it's about literal and metaphoric ghosts, literal and metaphoric hauntings, all coming together in a taut, beautifully acted movie about trauma and guilt and survival.

This movie deals with some seriously dark subjects and is also fucking terrifying. The main characters are very sympathetic, and all that combined had me on the edge of my seat for the entire movie, right up to its perfect ending. Very powerful and rewarding if your heart can take it.

It stars Wunmi Mosaku (Ruby in Lovecraft Country) and Sope Dirisu, plus a slightly distracting Matt Smith in a supporting role. Written and directed by Remi Weekes, who has no other credits but a couple shorts. This is astonishing - it's an incredibly assured, well-directed movie. I really hope to see more from him.

His House on Netflix