House of Shadows (2020) – Film Review
House of Shadows is a British Horror film released in Autumn 2020. Don’t let the picture on the DVD case fool you. Despite the inappropriate use of an old, English mansion, most of the film is set in the South of Spain.
The film begins by introducing Sarah (Elena Delia), a young British woman who has been asked to attend a meeting with a lawyer (Sam Newman) and has no idea why. The lawyer tells Sarah he has asked there to help settle her dead mother’s estate. Sarah quips that this shouldn’t take long because her mother had nothing. The lawyer tells her this is not the case and provides Sarah with a folder that contains details of her inheritance, along with the appropriate forms for her to sign.
Although it’s never explained what else Sarah’s mother has left her, when the story shifts to Spain, it quickly becomes apparent one of them is a decent-sized one-level hacienda.
When Sarah and her partner Jared (Luke Bailey) arrive at the house, which looks more lovely than creepy, they are met by a young woman named Anna (Harriet Madeley) who appears to have been expecting them and is keen to show them around the house.
Before leaving, Anna tells them she lives on a neighbouring property a short way up the road and asks them to let her know if they need anything.
Returning the following day, Anna is eager to speak to Sarah alone, telling her she wants help to clean the house and clear away the remnants of the past. Anna is most insistent that Sarah promises to do this. It’s an awkward scene that sets the stage for stranger things to come and when Jarad goes looking for Anna he discovers there are no nearby properties.
Things take a serious turn towards the weird when Sarah receives a call from her dead sister, Meghan. Not surprisingly, the call greatly distresses her, causing her to want to quit the house and return home. Jared, is very supportive of Sarah, agreeing to do whatever she thinks is best but, in the end, Sarah does an about-turn and decides to stay after all.
Things quickly escalate, the couple has to contend with more spooky occurrences, and Sarah begins seeing ghostly manifestations inside the house.
House of Shadows is anything but a standard haunted house film. The setting alone sets it apart. The house Sarah inherits is clean, light, and airy, not dark and dingy like the houses in so many other films about hauntings.
Although the film only has a small cast, the acting is not bad and Delia and Bailey make a great team as the loved-up couple, Sarah and Jared, who should be enjoying their time away from the UK but, instead, have to contend with paranormal disturbances.
Jared is anything but an alpha male. He’s just a caring guy who seems happy to let his girl wear the trousers and go with the flow. On the one hand, this makes him appear to be nothing more than a spare part, but on the other hand, this is a factor that sets House of Shadows apart from other horror movies which typically have one or more guys who want to take the lead or do their own thing. However, it would have been nice to see him show a little more spark now and again, especially in the scene where he and Sarah are awakened by loud knocking at the door in the middle of the night. Sarah is the one who goes out to investigate, while he cowers behind the window. That seems wrong to me but, who knows, perhaps that’s the way society is going. If so, House of Shadows could be ahead of its time.
Unfortunately, although House of Shadows gets off to a promising start and builds up the tension nicely, the film starts to go off the rails mid-way through and gets progressively worse, with scenes that involve time displacement, possession, and a demon who is collecting souls. The producers even throw in an Ouija board buried in the garden, and a scene where Sarah has a sword fight with the demon is so ridiculous it’s hard not to wonder what went wrong. Did the scriptwriter run out of ideas, or simply decide to throw in as much weirdness as possible? House of Shadows would be a much better film it stuck to the basics, ditched the demon and swordplay, and found an alternative route to take to the final credits.
Even though House of Shadows has several redeeming features and I have to award points for effort, it’s not a great film. It certainly had the potential to be one because all the right initial ingredients are present, but the extra spices sabotage the recipe, ruining the cake. It’s a pity. With a little more thought, House of Shadows could have been so much more and the end of the film suggests a lack of attention that hints at a rush job. As the final credits begin to roll, the name The House Beyond Time appears in the middle of the screen, suggesting this may have been the original working title. Even for an indie movie, this type of error is a pretty bad show.
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