[Review] There’s Someone Inside Your House
In small-town Nebraska, everything is simple and quiet, until the murder of young seniors sets the folks in an uproar. Everybody has secrets and the masked serial killer that is donning a mask just like their victim has a lot to reveal. Racist and homophobic sentiments and actions are being revealed to everyone, and the killer means to do these with good intentions? Or is this what it seems to be? Makani Young (Sydney Park) has secrets too, ones that she has to hide from her new friends at the high school. What happens when secrets are buried deep down and never revealed? Well, a serial killer exposes their dark secrets.
Followed by the success of Netflix’s teen slasher, the Fear Street trilogy, the streaming service introduces Patrick Brice’s There’s Someone Inside Your House, based on the novel by Stephanie Perkins. It revolves around Makani and her friends: Alex (Asjha Cooper), Zach (Dale Whibley), Darby (Jesse LaTourette) and Rodrigo (Diego Josef) during the final year of high school. However, their final year is interrupted by the horrific murders of Jackson (Markian Tarasiuk) and Katie (Sarah Dugdale), who were guilty of having homophobic and racial sentiments. The entire school suspects Ollie (Théordore Pellerin) because of his complicated family history, and he is secretly dating Makani. During a party at Zach’s house, the killer exposes Rodrigo’s secret: he takes painkillers. The killer appears with a lifelike mask just like Rodrigo and kills him by forcing him to swallow the pills and slash his throat. Frightening and suspecting the worst, Makani is being targeted for her secrets and when she becomes the next target for this serial killer, she worries for her safety.
Image courtesy of Netflix.
There’s Someone Inside Your House begins with one of the best opening sequences in a slasher movie. This sequence would promise the audience that the rest of the movie holds up to its bloody slasher, but it drops off just as the story begins. When Jackson wakes up from his nap, he notices his phone is replaced with a timer and his car gone. Immediately, he calls the emergency but stops himself when he sees a gallery of pictures in his house leading to a bedroom. Jackson looks overwhelmed and upset at this and when he enters the walking wardrobe, it is filled with pictures of him hitting one of the gay football players. The killer hiding underneath the stacks of clothes slashes his heels and stabs him in the chest. He releases the video to everyone and the entire school finds out about what he had done. This entire sequence alone elevates and promises what’s next to come in the teen slasher is thrilling. Even if the story becomes clunky and losing the motion, there are enough killings that keep the audience watching the movie.
The killings are inventive, bloody and gory enough to warrant the expectations that a teen slasher could have. Just look at the Fear Street trilogy and Scream. Both of them created innovative ways to kill people off and the excitement to find the killer is present throughout the films. However, There’s Someone Inside Your House attempts to meet those expectations, but cannot provide enough time and effort to make the audience interested enough. The ending is somewhat predictable and disappointing.
Image courtesy of Netflix.
The casting of Makani is perfect and Park does a fantastic job at bringing the troubled and caring teenager to the screen. Park’s Makani brings out a formidable strength and resilience to protect her friends even at the cost of her life and protecting her own. Park can portray vulnerability and it’s endearing to watch her play this role. The cast has great chemistry throughout the movie. But the problem comes in when these characters’ emotions are not explored as much. The audience gets to see a glimpse of how upset they are when their friend dies, and there isn’t any room for these characters to develop because there is not much to learn about them except that they are dealing with what comes after they finish high school.
There’s Someone Inside Your House is not meant to be a parody of slasher films, but it does not have any entertaining elements. While the opening sequence begins with a promising introduction, the rest of the movie is hollow and carelessly followed through. The ending is theorized in the dullest explanation possible, and maybe perhaps that’s why this teen slasher is not going to be memorable at all. The choices that were made to introduce Nazi memorabilia and the discissions of the current social and political issues are baffling and incredibly lazy storytelling. The movie does not strengthen the audience’s expectations of another teen slasher. If they were looking for one to watch after the smashing success of the Fear Street trilogy, There’s Someone Inside Your House will fall behind on your expectations.
