House of Ashes
‘I don’t believe in ghosts.’
‘I don’t think they care.’
Directed by Izzy Lee, who also co-wrote with Steve Johanson, this low-budget ghost story is one of many post-2020 horror films dealing with folk confined to their homes but it’s also informed by the erosion of women’s rights in MAGAworld.
Mia Shelden (Fayna Sanchez) is the first woman in her state (the film was shot in LA) to be sentenced to a year’s house arrest for the crime of having a miscarriage. Not only has she lost a baby and been villifed for it, abandoned even by her narcissist parents, but was was briefly a suspect in the ruled-as-suicide death of her veterinarian husband Adam (Mason Conrad). Her thug probation officer (Lee Boxleitner) takes a delight in treating her like shit and issuing threats of disproportionate punishment should she violate the conditions of her confinement or not maintain apparatus connected with it – did you know ankle monitors had to be charged like mobile phones? – but her new boyfriend Marc (Vincent Stalba) is determined to be supportive and even moves in to protect her from bottom-feeder Lexi ShokToks (Laura Dromerick). But there’s something shifty about Marc too. And the house is haunted. Objects like phones and keys go missing and later are seen to vanish. Adam’s ashes keep getting spilled and seeping into everything. Apparitions lurk in the back of frame. And Mia and Marc both have (understandable) mood swings.
It’s a simple tale, which neatly layers in quite a complicated backstory without doing too many explanatory flashbacks. Sanchez is excellent as a woman assailed by bothering souls dead or alive from all sides even as she can’t step out on the sidewalk or call on a single person for unqualified support. Characters like the hateful probation officer and the haranguing internet troll might once have seemed exaggerated, but the last few years have suggested that if anything the real-life equivalents of these folk are much, much worse. It’s always a smart idea for an inexpensive film to have a reason to stick to one location, and here it’s an in-narrative court order – one or two of the visual effects seem basic, but some of them work because they’re so simple. With bits from Joe Lynch and Mick Garris.
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