The filmmaker turns a supernatural thriller into a first-person storytelling experiment and a family drama that'd make Eugene O'Neill cringe.
You know the Tolstoy quote about all happy families being the same, but “every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way?” The quartet at the center of), is a first-class control freak, has become involved in some shady financial dealings, and dotes on her teenage son, Tyler , in a way that would make Freud’s head explode. He’s a champion swimmer, and she has her hopes pinned on him breast-stroking his way to the top; the kid is also kind of a bully.
is also a murder mystery — it turns out that Chloe’s friend wasn’t the only person to perish from an “overdose” — as well as an elaborate PSA about paying more attention to your kids, being fully present in times of need, and never ever trusting a bro with floppy bangs. But more than anything, it’s a family therapy session filtered through a horror movie in a way that practically makes the spooky bits superfluous. The haunted-house aspect is almost a red herring.
Which brings us back to that Tolstoy quote. Soderbergh has admitted that he’d never been a fan of virtual reality as a storytelling tool, and that part of the thrill of making this paranormal thriller was breaking his own rule about POV parameters. There’s an assumption that people don’t want to see a first-person perspective outside of video games — they need a reverse angle in order to bond with a character.
is really a ghost story in which the main ghost isn’t an ethereal apparition — it’s the M.I.A. bonds between parents and children, husband and wife, and the members of a family as a whole. Soderbergh and Koepp may borrow the concept of a possessed place of residence in the name of goosing viewers and positing grand what-ifs in terms of presentation. The scariest thing in this film, however, is not a haunted house but a house filled with genuine hatred for your loved ones.
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