Review of I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) by Daniel T — 01 Oct 2018

Ok, i'd be the first to ask for more atmospheric, spooky, Gothic, Ghost stories, and I'm patient when a (usually) period story of that kind delivers the shudders, taking as much time as it needs to do so.

Likewise, I'm tired of jump scares, the arms race for disgusting or bloody effects and I detest "torture porn." But this exercise in atmospherics was a labor even for me to get through. There is not enough story presented or even suggested, nothing to grab on to as a point of departure into the supernatural that it was dull as dust.

I'm all for slowing things down, I applaud whoever greenlit something this laborious these days, but i'm just not up for the intellectual labor of of deconstructing a minor film like this without the pedigree to motivate one to contemplate backstories, themes, open questions or what have you that may or may not even be there.

,it was equivalent to going into a dark basement alone, and waiting out the running time of the movie -.all atmosphere, creepy, but no story, no pov or departure point to amount to anything i'm willing to think hard enough about to retrieve anything I would call entertainment.

too bad, b/c the trappings were here, suspenseful build-ups (to nothing)...they just forgot to include more than the ghost of a story..