House of Darkness

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House of Darkness

R

2022

1h 29m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

60%

Tomatometer

62 Reviews

22%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

Justin Long and Kate Bosworth star in this seductive thriller from director Neil LaBute (The Wicker Man). Driving home to her secluded estate after meeting at a local bar, a player out to score thinks his beautiful, mysterious date will be another casual hook-up. While getting acquainted, their flirtation turns playful, sexy and sinister. Hoping to get lucky, his luck may have just run out.

Critics Consensus

House of Darkness finds writer-director Neil LaBute just as acerbic as ever, although he's made more compelling statements on sexual mores.

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

10/04/2022

1/5

This feels like something LaBute wrote in an afternoon on the notes app on his smartphone while thinking about something else.

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Noel Murray

Los Angeles Times

09/16/2022

While the material here is thin and largely predictable (aside from one great jump scare), the cast is outstanding and the dialogue is snappy, delivered at a brisk pace.

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Peter Sobczynski

RogerEbert.com

09/09/2022

3.5/4

An intriguing and occasionally quite witty battle of the sexes, in which not all of the bloodshed is strictly metaphorical.

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Alan French

Sunshine State Cineplex

Oct 2

8/10

For LaBute, the successful film not only contains some genuinely scare sequences and crescendos in suburb fashion. It’s a masterful use of narrative, dialogue, and tension.

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Anya Couture

Geek Vibes Nation

Jul 26

6.5/10

House of Darkness isn’t a masterpiece by any stretch but it is still a good story worthy of being experienced fresh for the first time.

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Terry Staunton

Radio Times

03/04/2025

2/5

The verbal jousting and escalating antagonism between Long and Bosworth is frequently hampered by clunky, unconvincing dialogue that never quite gives the narrative the momentum it needs.

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Sam

09/23/2022

Movie sucked ass, just a guy being awkward for an hour and a half

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anonymous

09/12/2022

waste of time and money

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Chas

09/10/2022

Overall this movie was just awful.

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Dan L

@Dan_Lewis Apr 25

This film takes the traditional mythology of a classic horror film and gives it an interesting twist. It is a movie about creating mounting tension through subtext, putting the spotlight on hook up culture and casual sex but also upon the awful and common occurrence of lies and violence within human sexuality. The dialogue ratchets up the tension by implication. Red flags go unnoticed and the psychology of a pastiche of the modern man is put under the microscope of a direct and confident woman with an agenda that becomes increasingly clear. The setting, tone and social commentary as well as the scares are very entertaining. If you enjoy thinking as much as you do being scared? You will like this one!

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Russell H

@RT85733992 Feb 12

I thought this was cool but predictable af. Justin Long is entertaining.

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Max R

@MaxRebo Feb 1

Please do yourself a favor and don't watch unless you like just pissing your time away. Worst movie I've seen in a long time. Everyone involved in the making of this movie should be ashamed of themselves. There are slow burners and then there's no flame lit at all. Just talking and contemplating for almost 2 hrs, nothing happens to tide you over , just continuing pointless babble between characters until last 5 minutes of the movie and by that time you really just want Justin Long to die already, if you didn't already at the start. He does play the perfect stereotypical doosch bag, I will give him that, that's usually how he's type cast and probably his general personality. The fact that RT gave this 60% really puts their knowledge and credibility of films reviews in question. I wouldn't give this more than 10% . Negative -5 Stars

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House of Darkness: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Justin Long and Kate Bosworth star in this seductive thriller from director Neil LaBute (The Wicker Man). Driving home to her secluded estate after meeting at a local bar, a player out to score thinks his beautiful, mysterious date will be another casual hook-up. While getting acquainted, their flirtation turns playful, sexy and sinister. Hoping to get lucky, his luck may have just run out.

Director: Neil LaBute
Producer: Daryl Freimark, Tim Harms, Neil LaBute, Shaun Sanghani, Kerri Elder, Blake Elder
Screenwriter: Neil LaBute
Distributor: Saban Films
Production Co: SSS Entertainment, SSS Film Capital
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 9, 2022, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 13, 2022
Runtime: 1h 29m