The House DVD Review

Two German soldiers lead their injured Norwegian prisoner through the snowy Scandinavian forest. Kreiner, the Nazi lieutenant, is having trouble squaring away his compass with the sun and cannot find the rendezvous point. They spot an isolated house in a clearing and make their way towards shelter. Inside they find hot food on the stove and a radio broadcasting the news, but the residence is abandoned. The Nazis pass the night making small talk about the war and women waiting for them at home before falling asleep. The younger of the two, a paratrooper named Fleiss, is supposed to stand guard, but fails until being awakened by a strange noise. It appears someone has entered the house. Kreiner and Fleiss search the building but find only strange markings on the wall and a plethora of crosses hanging in the living room.

Creepy noises continue to ring through the house, unsettling the soldiers to the point that they abandon their prisoner and flee into the night. After marching through the woods for hours, they come to a clearing only to discover they have been walking in circles and are back at the house. Once again there is food on the stove and the radio is playing in the front room. This introduces a cycle of action that repeats a few times until we gradually learn the place is haunted. Through a series of flashbacks that suggest something evil resides here, viewers are given glimpses of a past exorcism performed. The soldiers are in real danger as they face vengeful spirits while trapped in a situation that could be their downfall.

Reinert Kiil (Christmas Blood) is back with another tale of Norwegian terror and this time he brought Nazis. The House (aka Huset) is a slow-burn film with little payoff. Kiil stacks the deck against himself as he tries to tell a story that is beyond his grasp. The first hurdle he faces is the notion of asking audiences to sympathize with a couple of Nazis. These guys are the go-to villains of history and it is damn near impossible to bond with them in a haunted-house tale. Had the Norwegian prisoner been the protagonist trying to convince his captors of the supernatural plight, we might have a decent story. As it stands, the prisoner is barely developed and blends into the background, a wasted opportunity. Personal feelings against Nazis aside, the next problem with this movie is the pacing. We crawl past creaking doors and shadows on the wall without reward as the filmmaker fails to generate any real suspense.

One of my biggest problems with Kiil’s previous film is that it is under-lit, leaving large sections of the movie too dark to see. Kiil has a new cinematographer, but the results are the same, with many darker scenes leading to confusion, undercutting any attempt at terror. Stylistically, the exorcism cutaways are interesting, but the subplot proves unrelated to the principal storyline and is merely a distraction. The big reveal at the end is a nice revelation, but as there are no clues to invest the audience, it comes too late to satisfy. Kiil is a frustrating filmmaker in that he is a better writer than director and fails to deliver the story to the fullest. I want him to get better and hopefully his next film will be an improvement, but with my second bite at the Kiil apple, I have a bitter taste in my mouth.