Steven Soderbergh is the puppet master and we all dance on his strings. He tells the haunted house story from a unique first-person ghost perspective and watches as sparks fly. It follows the familiar trope of a family moving into a haunted house and from there, secrets unfold – but the ghosts aren’t the enemy; In this sense, it quickly becomes apparent the more this only eighty-five minute film is shown – that this is an exercise in essentialism rather than a rare case of overwrought , wasted filler moments – everything is trimmed, cropped to the edge. In an era when directors like John Waters are struggling to get funding for their films, Soderbergh is one of the last creatives able to raise the money he needs to make any project he wants – even though it’s not Will be considered the best of them all, this is a solid genre effort.
Soderbergh has been on top of his game from the beginning – continually reinventing himself and his take on the haunted house genre is fresh and exciting. It’s not “the scariest movie of the year” – in fact, it’s not scary at all – but that’s part of its charm present So unique. There was nothing outside the house, we could only see what was outside through the windows, and only briefly. The film’s storyline revolves entirely around its core family – brilliantly played by Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan – with an ambitious mother and a religious father raised by WASPs, leading to a momentary clash of personalities. And young but sad Chloe (played by Karina) Liang clashes with her rebellious loser brother Carl (played by Eddie Mady). was the hot, popular kid in school who reportedly had a mean personality. It’s a small cast, and everyone feels like a unique, real character—perhaps, at eighty-five minutes long, one of the film’s greatest achievements. In one room, Liu’s matriarch Rebecca protects her promising son; in the next, Chris helps his daughter through the grieving process of losing two close friends while considering his future. The value in marriage and why marriage is worth it simply doesn’t stick around.
This feels like a movie designed to avoid marketers’ expectations of it – it’s not a horror film; It’s not scary, and it never tries to be – it’s a very sombre and reflective exploration of trauma, and I think a lot of people will be disappointed with the way this film’s distributor NEON has marketed it. Soderbergh, the inventor of the camera, will have you asking them for days how they accomplished certain shots—like the scene where they organize the books. This isn’t a horror movie – so advertising it like this feels more cheating than not making a horror movie at all, and the ending may seem obvious in hindsight, but when they get there, it feels very satisfying.
Chloe is the first to notice the ghost. She believes her best friend has followed her here in ghost form, but for what purpose and to what purpose? Christian, spiritually, is more convincing than Rebecca, and the conflict of parental personalities arises from there. This is a nuclear family – a dynamic that is toxic to the siblings’ characters, and Christian recognizes this from his own flaws as a sibling and tries to get Chloe to be patient with Carl. From the outside, they look like your typical American family, but within seconds you realize they’re not perfect – no one is, and Ryan, as the disruptor, threatens to undo it all Bubble. Rebecca is too busy to notice what’s happening in front of her – whether by choice or job – and the fractured family unit alone is enough to provide a substantial story. However, adding a ghost and the power to develop and overcome trauma—sometimes noticed, sometimes not, as Chloe overcomes her grief on her own—elevates present Gets into unimaginably good territory – lacking in cheap jump scares, but incredibly good as a result. Four people walked out in front of the title card at a surprise screening – but they missed out on the highlight of the year.
