Review: House Of Bad

10th December 2013

I’m really enjoying what’s been going on with horror over the past decade or so. It has all the makings of another, possibly to be seen with hindsight, golden age, with films like Lucky McKee’s May, Ben Wheatley’s Kill List and Pascal Laugier’s simply amazing Martyrs to name but three. Horror has come of age again, bringing us chilling character studies instead of just cheap shocks, although these still abound. A film maker that is certainly finding his feet a midst this is Jim Town, and luckily for me, I have the opportunity to review his latest offering; House Of Bad.

When three sisters rip off one of their criminal boyfriends, they decide that the best thing to do would be to hide out at their old family home. Only (as you may have surmised by the title) it’s not that simple. When the dark past of the family and the house begins to re-emerge as ghostly apparitions the cracks in their group begin to show, testing their loyalty, humanity and sanity.

The first thing that has to be mentioned is how deep in exploitation territory we are here, and yet not. While the set up is straight out of the Russ Meyer play book (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! comes to mind), the way that Towns plays out the horror elements is more reminiscent of a classic ghost film like The Innocents, or, a contemporary I very much enjoyed for the same reason, The Lords of Salem. In the wake of horror blockbusters like The Conjuring and the Insidious films, it’s fantastic to see an independent effort like this try and buck the trend and head for atmosphere over jolts; ideas over scares. It’s a film using it’s head and should applauded for doing so. Having said this, it would have been nice to see them stray further a field from the exploitation roots, and I would have started with some of the one liners (you’ll know them when you see them).

The real heart and soul of the film is the relationship between the sisters three; Tieg (Heather L. Tyler), the capable and willful bad-ass, Lily (Cheryl Sands), the half-sister junkie with heart (by the by, be prepared for possibly the most casual withdrawals ever committed to film), and Sirah (Sadie Katz) lying somewhere in-between. While archetypal these characters may be, it is in the exploration of these archetypes from a shared history and how it shaped each of them that the film really finds it feet and remains grounded by solid performances from a decent cast. Tyler, however, shines as Tieg. She’s truly the acting centre piece, balancing the hardened woman with the flashes of the vulnerable girl.

However, House Of Bad‘s plotting and pace are a slightly different story. It seems to not so much dip between genre as leap. While exploitation film is well known for playing fast and loose with genre, this is one with the seams on display and to its detriment. You are just getting comfortable with how the film is building when the rug is pulled out from under you and you’re thrown from one to the other. This means you have to completely readjust with the film making it more of a chore to keep up than it needs to be at points. This puts a dampener on proceedings, but it’s definitely not a deal clincher. As I’ve said, their relationship is the heart of the film so the situations in which it’s is tested and pushed becomes thankfully secondary.

I certainly have niggles and nitpicks, but they would be just that instead of legitimate criticism and to put them into a review would be unfair. After all, this film is more fable than anything else. This isn’t just out for scares and neither is it dealing with a real world logic. It’s a film trying to deal with ideas of why these characters are who they are by making flesh (sort of) the ghosts of their past and watching what happens when they have to confront the people they’ve become because of it. Anything I didn’t like with House Of Bad is a testament to what it did right, not a damnation of what it got wrong.

Bordering on greatness but held back by a fragmented identity. An interesting, character driven, exploitation film and while filled with potential it doesn’t quite achieve, Town is a name to put next to McKee for my “directors to catch up on” list.

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