After writer-director Neil LaBute's long absence from movies, his big-screen comeback flips the dynamic of 'In the Company of Men' for horror crowds.
“Silence. Darkness.” Those two words appear up front in most of Neil LaBute’s stageplays, though his latest feature, “House of Darkness,” opens with a more playful “Once Upon a Time …” The film — LaBute’s first in a bumpy seven-year stretch since “Dirty Weekend,” during which the provocateur was abruptly dropped by longtime Off Broadway partner MCC Theater — starts out as a standard hookup scenario and twists into edgier, potentially supernatural “Promising Young Woman” territory. Part cautionary tale, part post-#MeToo ghost story, this sly chamber piece uses silence and darkness to its advantage, allowing audiences’ imaginations to fill in the spaces and shadows of an atypical one-night stand.
It’s pretty clear what Hap Jackson (Justin Long) is hoping will follow when he offers Mina Murray (Kate Bosworth, eerily difficult to read) a ride home from the local bar. Guys like Hap refer to nights like this as “getting lucky,” though he’s almost certain to have a different view of things once this tryst is through. The lucky one here in fact is Mina, whose motives aren’t nearly as apparent — the uncertainty of which drives the sense of creeping dread that percolates over the next hour and a half, depicted practically in real time.
Related Stories
VIP+What Lionsgate’s Partnership Deal With Runway Means
Christopher Ciccone, Artist and Brother of Madonna, Dies at 63
Mina lives in an ominous American castle (Arkansas’ not-at-all-intimidating Dromborg Castle supplied the location, while nighttime exteriors and candlelit parlors give things a fittingly Gothic vibe), and though she claims the two have the place to themselves, Hap keeps catching glimpses of figures at the other end of darkened corridors. But he’s too buzzed and too horny to care, and besides, this clumsy pickup artist isn’t being entirely honest with her either. When Mina asks whether he’s married, Hap offers a cryptic “Not at the moment.” And though he doesn’t overtly pressure her for sex, there’s innuendo in practically everything he says.
Popular on Variety
A frequent chronicler of power games between the sexes, LaBute excels at this kind of loaded repartee, in which characters communicate their intentions via subtext. The delivery may be too stilted to take at face value, but that’s all the better for keeping audiences guessing. As the evening escalates, Hap becomes more direct in his douchebaggery, even going so far as to hit on Mina’s sister Lucy (Gia Crovatin) after she appears, equally lovely and every bit as enigmatic.
Hap thinks of himself as a “decent guy,” and because Long is such an inherently likable actor, some may give his character the benefit of the doubt. This clearly isn’t his first one-night stand — nor Mina’s, as a pile of men’s loafers seen over the opening and closing credits unsettlingly suggests. But is infidelity enough to justify whatever Mina and her sister(s) have in store? Or is belonging to a gender they consider toxic all it takes? This is where LaBute is shrewd to leave things vague, inviting audiences to project their own reasons on the film’s inevitable reckoning — a horrific payoff that recalls LabBte’s laughable 2006 remake of “The Wicker Man,” only more intentionally funny this time around.
To film audiences, LaBute is probably best known for his blistering 1997 Sundance drama “In the Company of Men,” which depicted the dating game at its most treacherous: Two businessmen set out to seduce and destroy the most vulnerable woman they can find. “House of Darkness” offers a reversal on that dynamic, albeit in a completely different genre. Though the film remains firmly planted in the male POV, LaBute implies that the women have made a similar pact off-screen (Lucy Walters rounds out the trio of vengeful sirens).
“House of Darkness” neatly comments on the newly uncertain dynamics of modern dating, where “decent guys” claim to no longer know how to proceed. The rules are simple: Consent and respect. And yet, players now find themselves on the defensive. What follows will be some men’s worst nightmare, as the conquest turns against them and the seducer becomes the prey. But it could also be a particularly satisfying fable for the opposite sex. After teasing what Mina is up to for more than an hour, the payoff delivers, though it may be too mild to resonate in a world where allegories like “Titane” — or “Tusk,” for that matter, to cite a Justin Long thriller that takes things to far more perverse extremes — now exist.
But the real mystery is why a new Neil LaBute movie doesn’t seem to be on anybody’s radar. Buried among the world premieres at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the project debuted practically in silence and darkness, suggesting that LaBute (who’s been dabbling in television since the MCC split, creating “Billy & Billie” for DirecTV and “The I-Land” for Netflix) may have lost his cultural cachet. But judging by the result, this wicked little movie suggests his voice may be uniquely suited to the broader conversation.
Read More About:
Jump to Comments‘House of Darkness’ Review: A Player Becomes the Prey in Kate Bosworth and Justin Long’s First Date
Reviewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival, March 8, 2022. Running time: 88 MIN.
More from Variety
Tito Jackson, Founding Member of the Jackson 5, Dies at 70
Generative AI & Licensing: A Special Report
Maggie Smith, Star of ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ Dies at 89
James Earl Jones, Distinguished Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies at 93
Apple Vision Pro Clouds the Bright Future for XR
Mark Shopiro, Dan Slepak, Hwei Loke Elevated as Prime Video Tweaks Management in Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Most Popular
Inside the 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire
‘Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Doc Reveals Erik’s Drawings of His Abuse and Lyle Saying ‘I Would Much Rather Lose the Murder Trial Than Talk About Our…
‘Kaos’ Canceled After One Season at Netflix
‘Joker 2’ Axed Scene of Lady Gaga’s Lee Kissing a Woman at the Courthouse Because ‘It Had Dialogue in It’ and ‘Got in the Way’ of a Music…
Saoirse Ronan Says Losing Luna Lovegood Role in ‘Harry Potter’ Has ‘Stayed With Me Over the Years’: ‘I Was Too Young’ and ‘Knew I Wasn't Going to Get…
Kamala Harris Cracks Open a Miller High Life With Stephen Colbert on ‘The Late Show’
Kathy Bates Won an Oscar and Her Mom Told Her: ‘You Didn't Discover the Cure for Cancer,’ So ‘I Don't Know What All the Excitement Is About…
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried to Star in ‘The Housemaid’ Adaptation From Director Paul Feig, Lionsgate
‘Skyfall’ Director Sam Mendes Says James Bond Studio Prefers Filmmakers ‘Who Are More Controllable’: ‘I Would Doubt’ I’d…
Kamala Harris Watches Maya Rudolph’s ‘SNL’ Impression, Praises the Mannerisms: ‘She’s So Good!’
Must Read
- Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 3 weeks
- TV
Menendez Family Slams Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ as ‘Grotesque’ and ‘Riddled With Mistruths’: ‘The Character Assassination of Erik and Lyke Is Repulsive…
- TV
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Part 2 to Air on CBS After Paramount Network Debut
- TV
50 Cent Sets Diddy Abuse Allegations Docuseries at Netflix: ‘It’s a Complex Narrative Spanning Decades’ (EXCLUSIVE)
- Shopping
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Digital and Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates
Sign Up for Variety Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Variety Confidential
ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXN%2Bjp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqmign6rApnnOn2SdmaKgu6a%2F0mapnq6ZmsRut8CtnGaan6jEsL7ToWSjraOptq95y6iloGVhZ4B2fZhycGlrXw%3D%3D