Horror Movie Review: Home with a View of the Monster (2019)

Home with a View of the Monster is a cool film with some really clever ideas that, almost inevitably, gets bogged down in the detail of those ideas. It is an enjoyable film, but you can’t help but think that if they had kept it a bit simpler, it might have fared better.

Directed by Alex Greenlee and Todd Greenlee (who co-wrote it with Adam Greenlee), the film is told through chapters and takes on a couple of different forms as it goes on. First, telling a cautionary tale about renting out your home, Airbnb-style. Which is always a good basis for a horror film, but this film doesn’t quite follow the expected path.

Here, Dennis (Sébastien Charmant) and Rita (Ellen Humphreys) have decided to take a trip, needing to relax away from home. They appear to be a couple in trouble, and while this isn’t particularly new or interesting for a horror film, the reason why is unexpected. Anyway, they have rented it out to Kate (Danielle Evon Ploeger) and Chance (Jasper Hammer), who are a new couple spending the weekend together, but both harbour dark secrets.

It’s these secrets that are taken advantage of by the third part of the film, which is the house itself. It’s not that it’s haunted or possessed, rather the house is an evil entity itself and feeds on negative emotions. It wants to push its occupants to their limits and in the case of Kate and Chance, it has good eating. Whereas, in a black comedy sort of way, Dennis and Rita have learned to live with the house and its attempts to drive them mad. They kind of had no choice, having sunk all their money into buying it.

Unfortunately, Kate and Chance are completely unaware of the danger they are in, except they are both dangerous in their own way too. So when Dennis and Rita come home early, trouble brews and a deeper mystery must be unravelled.

I am avoiding spoilers because a lot of the enjoyment of the film comes from the reveals, even if there are far too many. It makes the film hard to follow, and slow in places, but that doesn’t make it a bad film either. I personally found it to be a compelling watch that just needed a few ideas dropped and focus being put on how the house takes advantage of the different couples and their relationship issues. There’s simply too much to unpack, so inevitably, the film does run out of steam at the end. Especially as the tone switches become even more erratic and temperamental. I still can’t quite work out if the film genuinely wanted to be funny in places.

Negatives around the story aside, the cast are really good. I really liked Danielle Evon Ploeger’s Kate. A sympathetic character who has detestable qualities too. A tough balance to make convincing so credit to the actor for nailing it. I have zero complaints here. Nor do I have any complaints about the film’s visuals and how some of the scares are delivered. I wouldn’t call it a scary film really, but there are some great camera shots that create a foreboding sense and occasionally deliver moments of fright.

Overall, I liked it. Even if I can see how someone could find themselves slowly switching off as layer after layer is revealed.