Review of I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) by Brendan N — 02 Nov 2016

Whether or not you liked this film depends on a few things. First, were you expecting the typical fright flick of mindless blood and gore cliché? Are you a modern film viewer looking for action? Do you have patience? Are you willing to wait and enjoy the different, the odd, the poetic, the literary?

This is Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, The Shinning, and A Space Odyssey all wrapped into one. It's a tone poem, a Gothic story of emotion and expression of humans bereft of emotion, hope, and love.

Perkins does a wonderful job of setting mood via pacing, artistic cinematography and scarcity. The feeling invokes that of Glazer's Under the Skin. The narrative is not clean, sequential and obvious (yet it is there, if you pay attention, and you'll need a lot of patient attention paid to enjoy this film), yet what is seen, even among the questions of meaning, is of greatest impact.

I personally sat through the entire movie glued to the still threat of the quiet of the film, the artistry of the poetic narrative, and stark, bleak visual emptiness. Again, I think whether or not this film is a success for you is all about what are you willing to bring to it yourself. I certainly enjoy the odd and offhanded, but not that without merit. This film certainly is off the beaten path, but there is such depth here that cannot be denied. I'm certainly going back in for a second look (as I did for Under the Skin) to get a real look at this film's hidden treasures of meaning.