Searchlight Pictures has debuted a new trailer for director David Bruckner’s The Night House, a new psychological horror film that first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020, and has been slated for an August 20 release.
The Stephen King-inspired premise involves a woman named Beth (Rebecca Hall) grieving the death of her husband, alone at the lakeside home that he’d built for her. An ominous voiceover sets up the terror that Beth is hounded by, as she beings seeing things like bloody footprints and ceremonial objects around the labyrinthine house. That might sound an awful lot like the recent Apple TV+ series Lisey’s Story, but at this point in the cultural timeline, it’s difficult to escape King’s influence. Incidentally, writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski previously collaborated on the very King-esque Super Dark Times.
Bruckner already displayed a flair for atmospheric, slow-burn horror in his underrated Netflix film The Ritual, starring Rafe Spall. The Night House trailer, even at just a minute long, is chock-full of haunting imagery and character moments.
The Night House came out of Sundance with stellar reviews. It holds an 88% “fresh” score over at the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews. Collider’s own Perri Nemiroff, in her review, described a creepy film that refuses to let go of you even after the end credits have rolled: “Yes, The Night House does have a clear conclusion but it’s also got themes and ideas that’ll likely get under your skin and stick with you,” and also praised Hall’s performance as “effortlessly captivating.”
The Night House counts David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, but also The Unborn) as one of its producers, and Sarah Goldberg (Barry) and Evan Jonigkeit (X-Men: Days of Future Past) as its cast members. Mark August 20 on your calendars and watch the new trailer below:
Here’s the official synopsis for The Night House:
Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep together—but then the dreams come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house call to her, beckoning with a ghostly allure. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into her husband’s belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and terrible and a mystery she’s determined to resolve.