'There's Someone Inside Your House' Review: Dazzling slasher film for new generation
After the massive success of the recently released ‘Fear Street’ trilogy, Netflix has once again treated the young adult audiences with a perfectly-timed slasher film titled ‘There’s Someone Inside Your House’. The movie, based on the novel of the same name written by Stephanie Perkins, revolves around a young woman named Makani Young (Sydney Park) who has recently shifted to a small town in Nebraska to complete her studies and change her life. She has a group of friends that is really supportive. However, everything changes when a serial killer starts killing the students of Osborne High School and starts exposing their dark secrets to the whole town.
The premise of the Netflix horror flick seems to be taking inspiration from slasher movies from the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, mixing the inspired stuff with the sensibilities of today’s youth gives viewers an amazing slasher film for the upcoming Halloween season.
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The movie starts with an epic killing sequence that perfectly sets the tone. A popular high-school footballer named Jackson is alone in the house when he realizes that someone is inside his house. As soon as he thinks of leaving the house, he realizes his car is gone and he is forced to get back inside the house. Surprisingly, the intruder knows about Jackson’s dark secret and has photos of him brutally beating the hell out of a student named Caleb because he was gay. He enters the wardrobe and gets attacked by a knife just a little above his toes. Jackson is terrified to know that the killer is actually wearing a mask of his own face.
The scene ends with the killer stabbing Jackson in the heart and giving us an idea of what can we expect in the remainder of the movie.
The film then shifts its focus to Makani Young (Sydney Park) and her close friends – Alex (Ashja Cooper), Rodrigo (Diego Josef), Darby (Jesse LaTourette), and Zach (Dale Whibley) – mourning the death of their fellow student. On the other hand, Caleb’s identity is now out in the public because of the video that was released right after Jackson’s killing. Caleb's an outcast as well now and that's why Makani invites him to sit with them during recess.
As the film moves forward, we get to realize that Makani is facing her own demons as well and is being haunted by that one thing she did in her past. Meanwhile, the killer is getting bolder day after day and kills another student named Katie (Sarah) for running an anonymous podcast which makes us realize how racist she actually is. The gang gets really worried and plans to unearth the truth in this well-crafted and thoroughly entertaining young adult movie.
The film’s strength lies in its characters and filmmaker Patrick Brice, along with writer Henry Gayden, have done a fantastic job in creating characters who are fighting their inner demons to stay relevant in society. Getting stalked by a killer is terrifying, but being haunted by something that you did in the past is much more horrifying than anything else. This is the kind of fear Makani lives with daily. One more thing that the movie does differently is how the serial killer finds its victims.
Slasher movies in the 2000s always introduced us to a group of friends getting killed one by one, but the Netflix movie has done something different here by presenting us with a killer who is brutally murdering students who have a dirty secret hidden.
As far as acting is concerned, Sydney Park gives an amazing performance as Makani. During the course of the movie, Park shows why Makani turned out the way she is and knocks it out of the park with a somber performance. I hope, we get to see more of her in the future. The supporting cast is amazing as well, especially Whibley. The actor, who plays Zach in the movie, is a mysterious guy who hates his dad for doing some really wrong things. Meanwhile, Cooper, Josef, LaTourette, and Theodore Pellerin (Oliver) have given superb performances that will surely be remembered in the coming years.
Director Patrick Brice has done a phenomenal job in creating a movie that is elevated by strong acting and authentic story progression. Whenever a character dies, the movie just simply does not move on and allows the sadness to sink in before moving onto the net part of the story. A lot of people might not label it as a horror movie, but that’s not something that viewers should worry about because the film will keep them at the edge of their seats due to its writing and how gruesomely the victims are killed.
‘There’s Someone Inside Your House’ is a worthy addition to the sub-genre and explores its characters more than any other slasher movie has done in the past. Of all the horror movies that Netflix has offered in the recent past, this is undoubtedly one of the best so far.
‘There’s Someone Inside Your House’ is currently streaming on Netflix.