Scott Beck
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In some ways it reminded me of last year’s deceptive house of horror movie Heretic with Hugh Grant in a surprising kind of role, but this isn’t that kind of terrifying.
In contrast to films with similar setups, like Heretic, where the house feels like a breathing representation of the owner’s fractured interiority, the mansion in The Housemaid is as characterless as the Davenports.
The Invitation (2015; Kanopy, Peacock, Pluto TV, Prime Video, Sling TV, Tubi, rentable): "Hospitality can be hell" is also the premise of this tense psychological thriller directed by Karyn Kusama (not to be confused with the 2022 film of the same name), in which a dinner party takes an unsettling turn for a man visiting his ex-wife.
His veneer of affability and its occasional cracks make the first half of the film some of the tensest sitting-around-and-talking-about-stuff since 2015’s The Invitation.
Incluso comparándola con sus pares del género como «It Follows», «Happy Death Day» o en menor medida la reciente «Heretic», de encanto algo similar.
(Of the two unfortunate Mormon missionaries of 2024’s Heretic, she’s the one who feels far more guarded.)
Thatcher, in her second horror role in two months (Heretic), makes for a fine mix of lovesick fawn and femme fatale.
Just know that Thatcher, who impressed as a Mormon missionary in last year’s “Heretic,” is given the freedom to showcase many sides of her talent.
Sophie Thatcher (Heretic, The Boogeyman)…
Sophie Thatcher (Heretic)…
Ambivalence seeps into the film’s bones, especially in how cinematographer Chung Chung Hoon (known for his work with Park Chan Wook on features such as Oldboy (2003) and Stoker) allows the camera to slide down the most shadowy of halls.
Heretic was in part an exploration of control and Bring Her Back is about the ways that power seeks not only to confine, but to preserve, and to restore.
McMicking leans on the high overhead shots becoming increasingly common in horror these days (see "Heretic," "Bring Her Back")…
These aspects of Heretic should be the best; Beck and Woods enlisted Chung Chung-hoon as the film's cinematographer, whose work with Park Chan-wook on the likes of Oldboy and The Handmaiden has proven himself to be a master of knowing how to capture the tension in scenes with flamboyant villains, unfolding ornate puzzle boxes before your eyes.
Playing a villain is not entirely new to Hugh Grant—one need only think of “Paddington 2,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and “The Gentlemen” on the big screen, and “A Very English Scandal” on the small one. But in all of those the characters had a comic vibe. The closest he came to pure nastiness came with the HBO miniseries “The Undoing,” and even there his innate charm worked to the advantage of the mystery.
While Grant has enjoyed drolly chewing scenery as a family film heavy in Paddington 2, and being the one redeeming thing as a motormouth wiseguy in Guy Ritchie’s turgid The Gentlemen, it is in Mr. Reed that Grant at last finds a villain whose vices match the virtues of…
An equally enjoyable role as a dodgy geezer in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen followed the mac-wearing bear sequel in 2019 before 2023’s Dungeons and Dragons again demonstrated Grant’s suitability for a villain that can turn deviousness into a kind of cinematic joy.
More recently he’s turned to portraying shadier types in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, the miniseries The Undoing, and more.