Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. Before long, disturbing visions of a presence in the house begin to beckon her with a ghostly allure. Yearning for answers, she begins digging into her husband’s belongings, only to discover strange and disturbing secrets.
For in-depth thoughts on The Night House, please see my colleague Michael Cook’s review from its original theatrical release here.
Video Quality
The film debuts on Blu-Ray courtesy of Searchlight Pictures with a gorgeous 1080p presentation in its original aspect ratio that captures the film well. The movie itself has a cooler color palette with key moments where the screen is bathed in a dark red light which this transfer handles brilliantly. There is also a great amount of detail and clarity throughout the entire presentation. The fine detail that is detectable on faces is quite remarkable. Roaming shots remain stable and avoid any blurring or banding. For a movie that relies on darkness to build tension, it is important to have deep black levels, which this thankfully does. Objects hold up very well in the shadows and retain their depth. There is no damage, black crush or digital noise detectable in this transfer. This is a supremely impressive transfer from Searchlight Pictures that allows this brand new film to thrive at a high bit rate and deliver a problem-free viewing experience.
Audio Quality
The Night House comes to Blu-Ray with an outstanding DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. The movie is mostly on the quiet side with bursts of activity when Beth is being terrorized. The low end of the track is especially active during these moments with a bit of wall shaking happening. The dialogue and sound effects are appropriately balanced with the unsettling score and recurring musical tracks where nothing gets lost in the mix. Surround channels get some nice activity during the numerous scenes in the room where sounds are coming from unknown origins. This is a film that is immensely satisfying from a sound design perspective. The directionality of this track is on point with sounds coming from all of the appropriate places. This track is quite powerful, and will be appreciated by horror fans who pick up this disc.
Special Features
- What Happens At The Lake House: A pretty interesting 22-minute featurette in which the cast and crew discuss bringing the story to life, the elements of Hitchcock in the film, the thrill of bringing a character to life this emotionally raw, the challenging nature of some of the ensemble performances, playing with perspective through architecture, mixing practical and special effects, the production design and more. There are a lot of really fascinating insights that are worth exploring.
- Theatrical Trailer: The two-and-a-half minute trailer is provided here.
Final Thoughts
The Night House is a film that will appeal more to those who appreciate something a bit less mainstream. There are some supremely unsettling moments throughout, but the horror comes more so from the deep emotional themes in play rather than your standard malevolent ghost tale. The performance from Rebecca Hall is simply outstanding, and the way she carries this material to its emotional climax is perfection. Searchlight Pictures has given this film a Blu-Ray featuring a wonderful A/V presentation and a pretty solid featurette. If you appreciate when your horror film has some depth to it while still being very creepy, do yourself a favor and check this one out. Highly Recommended
The Night House will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD on October 19, 2021. The film is currently available to purchase on Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Searchlight Pictures have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
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