Horror movie distorts time, place continuum
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT
MALEVOLENT houses are a staple of horror films; they’re usually dark and gloomy with creaking staircases but in You Should Have
Left, the house in a remote part of Wales is an austere modernist block.
That’s where retired rich banker Theo (Kevin Bacon) and his much younger actress wife Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) go for a getaway with their six-year-old daughter Ella (Avery Essex) before Susanna starts shooting her next film in London.
There’s something in Theo’s past that has made him notorious, he avoids being recognised, and he is suspicious of Susanna’s relationships with others.
But as Theo says to her, “I’m working on the jealous thing.”
The house seems to evoke horrible nightmares in Theo, and in Ella for that matter.
We experience Theo’s as he wanders through the house at night along corridors and down staircases that don’t seem to be part of the house by day.
Theo’s visit to a local shop delivers an ominous message from the taciturn shopkeeper - he warns him that some people who visit the house never leave and in his diary he finds a written warning: Leave. You should leave. Go now.
This effective horror/thriller was written and directed by David Koepp, which he adapted from the novel by Daniel Kehlmann.
The narrative distorts the time/ place continuum as we experience life within this seemingly close nuclear family.
But there are troubling undercurrents, despite the two parents obvious love for their bright little daughter.
Performances enhance the film; Kevin Bacon is always solid.
He’s a bit more grizzled, but still fit and attractive at 61.
Amanda Seyfried is convincing as Susanna and young Avery Essex is astonishingly good as Ella.
This is a Blumhouse production, so you know what to expect, it’s tense and bewildering and ultimately satisfying.