It’s the Halloween season, and fans are looking for the best horror movies on Netflix. While there are some great horror flicks on Netflix, like Get Out, we want to narrow things down to the scariest movie on Netflix. Our pick is a little known film called His House, from first-time director Remi Weekes.
Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku star as a married couple, Bol and Rial, who have escaped the war in their native Sudan to find refuge in the U.K. Unfortunately, the couple’s new lives aren’t all they hoped for, and something evil has followed them into their home. It’s a haunting experience that feels like a breath of fresh air for the genre. It’s not a typical jump-scare horror movie, and some of its horrors are all too real.
If you need more convincing, here are three reasons why His House is the scariest movie on Netflix right now.
It has a new spin on the haunted house story
Typical haunted house stories are about great mansions or manors, which have plenty of rooms for ghosts and spirits to inhabit. Conversely, in this film, Bol and Rial aren’t exactly living in luxury. As refugees, they’ve been placed in an extremely rundown tenement that looks like it’s falling apart. In such small confines, there’s really nowhere to run when the couple’s supernatural haunting begins.
When Bol becomes convinced that an apeth (an evil spirit or night witch) is living in the walls, he starts tearing into the walls themselves. This further underscores how little space that they to work with, as well as their desperate need to get the apeth out of their lives.
Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu give compelling performances
The haunting is only part of this story. Dirisu and Mosaku performances are so good that this could have been a great drama even without the touch of the supernatural. From the very start, the couple appear to understand that their status as refugees is tenuous at best. Even their caseworker, Mark (Doctor Who‘s Matt Smith), seems to have barely disguised disdain for them.
In response, Bol does everything he can to fit in with his new country and assimilate to their new culture. On the other hand, Rial refuses to change who she is or abandon their customs. She also adamantly holds on to the necklace of their daughter, Nyagak (Malaika Abigaba), who perished on their perilous journey. The relationship between the couple is strained to its breaking point by both the haunting and by the dark secret they share about how they survived. Those moments of real drama do a lot to elevate the horror around them.
The horrors of war
Late in the film, His House has an extended sequence in Sudan that reveals exactly what Bol and Rial did to survive, and how they earned the wrath of the apeth. The bloodshed and violence the couple lived through is perhaps even more horrific than the horror in the present. It also allows the audience to understand why Bol and Rial committed a crime of their own just to escape. But the film doesn’t excuse their actions either.
The war sequences are some of the most impressive parts of the movie, and may be where most of the budget went. His House took a big swing by venturing into territory where few horror films have gone before. That may be the biggest reason why this movie seems destined to be a cult favorite when it gets discovered by a wider audience.
Watch His House on Netflix.
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