Netflix's 'His House' Is a Unique Take on The Haunted House Movie!

You can usually tell by the first few minutes of a trailer whether a movie is going to be good or not. And, well, let’s just say I watched the trailer for His House about three times in the same day. And to my delight, the movie itself, now streaming on Netflix, delivers what was promised. 

His House is a brilliant take on the traditional haunted house formula. Two immigrants fleeing the Sudanese civil war luckily make their way through the British immigration system and into a “new” home. Between cleaning up the disgusting messes left by owners past and fixing the many issues the home itself has, actors Sope Dirisu ("Gangs of London") and Wunmi Mosaku ("Lovecraft Country") encounter a “witch” following them from their journey, haunting their new home.

What the film does better than any creepy jump-scare is acknowledge that no demon or spirit can be scarier than mankind. The movie tells us that there is no witch more frightening than the horrors our ambition can drive us to. We see this in observing what exactly the homeowners are willing to do to each other to make sure they never go back, and what the British are willing to do to make sure they’re only allowing “the good ones” to enter their country.

By the end of the film, in a feat of cinematographical genius, figures that were once haunting becoming immensely beautiful. In flipping the entire horror genre on its head, the film tells us two things: (1) that the West’s treatment of immigrants is horrific in and of itself, and (2) immigrants are people. They should not be tokenized idealizations of the country they are from — they’re human. In understanding this, we also know that the pressure to assimilate can haunt an individual more than any spirit or ghost can.

Ever since Jordan Peele introduced us to it, we're becoming more and more infatuated with Black people being the center of attention in horror films. Now that I’ve seen it, it’s quickly becoming my favorite genre. If you like psycho-thrillers or horror movies with social themes, then His House on Netflix will be a treat for you!