HOUSE OF ASHES
A review by Aaron Barrocas

House of Ashes



Pro-tip for coffee drinkers: Drink something else during this movie. You’re welcome.

Izzy Lee is well known amongst the indie community for directing a number of memorable shorts, including Re-Home, Memento Mori, and Meat Friend. House of Ashes, her first step into the feature world, is visually stunning, atmospheric, tense, filled with promise, and continues her tradition of confronting major issues.

The premise itself draws eyes - Mia Sheldon (Fayna Sanchez), recently exonerated for the murder of her husband Adam (Mason Conrad), finds herself convicted of a different crime. She is guilty of committing a miscarriage. Her pregnancy ended in tragedy. The state feels that she should be punished for this, and she is sentenced to house arrest.

In a time when women’s rights are in the crosshairs, we’re interested from the first scene. Though the conversation quickly changes from an overt exploration of that (our?) dystopia to a much more nuanced discussion, eventually to be pushed forward subtextually. More on that shortly.

Mia isn’t alone in the house. She has her new romantic interest, Marc Winters (Vincent Stalba), living with her. Marc seems to be a mixed bag - supportive of her at times, but often more concerned with himself.

When hounded by interested podcasters and reporters, Marc comments that he feels like a prisoner, earning a well-deserved eyebrow raise from Mia. It’s not a coincidence that this potentially narcissistic character perceives persecution where there is none – male privilege is an ongoing theme in this story.

Mia answers to a bully of a Probation Officer who treats her like any criminal, and expresses moral outrage at her crime, complaining that all liberals are hypocrites. In another scene, a Police Officer pulls a man over, and upon learning that the man is having “lady trouble”, gives him a pat on the back and sends him on his way.

And when they are put together in a paragraph like above, it seems potentially overwhelming, but they’re spread out over the course of the film. After the first five minutes, you don’t feel like you’re watching a social commentary, but rather a much more familiar genre…

Violent knocking, a bird crashing into the window, keys and phones disappearing, Marc surrendering to a trance-like state, security cameras going offline - things going wrong and the two house occupants blaming each other when neither is to blame. Much of the movie is a haunted house film, in the familiar tradition of The House on Haunted Hill, The Haunting, The Others, The Amityville Horror, and so many others.

Prior to her life becoming an imprisoned, haunted hell, Mia and her husband ran a veterinary clinic called Happy Valley. The name, as well as photographs and a flashback of this past world, give us the impression that her life was idyllic in many ways. We enter the story after the collapse of that life, and spend the movie in a nightmarish state where we’re often unsure whether we’re seeing an actual reality or somebody’s perspective on reality. It’s as if we’re starting the movie in the unraveling scenes of Don’t Worry Darling, Pleasantville, Get out, The Truman Show, or the Stepford Wives - the part where we already know there’s a world of darkness behind the curtain. We’re diving into this story headfirst, having skipped the beautiful life part, and that’s an interesting and smart jumping off point.

Here are some things you should watch this movie for:

Fayna Sanchez. This is a dour story, and it could have been painful to watch 90 minutes that start with suffering and offer no hope of load lightening. But Fayna’s Mia keeps it engaging. She makes sure we’re involved in the story, and we care about her. Even if the movie were a pure messaging machine (and it’s not), Fayna puts a very human and believable face to it. An actor wants a role that allows her to portray a wide range, and Fayna gets that opportunity in House of Ashes. She has joy, grief, fear, vulnerability, empowerment, and she nails all of it.

The Visuals. This movie is lit and shot beautifully. Director of Photography Sophia Cacciola, who has worked with Izzy Lee on many past projects, lit the hell out of and into this film. There is color everywhere in this thematically dark film, and it’s so absolutely necessary. The camera helps us process Mia’s world, and reveals its horrors - especially in one telling and memorable third act shot (you’ll know the one). Elsewhere, as Mia questions her own innocence, she physically confronts herself in an impressively creepy moment. Horror lives or dies on the visuals, and House of Ashes passes muster. By visuals, though, I don’t just mean the cinematography. While some of the visual effects are exactly what you would expect from a small indie budget, there are also practical and post effects in this movie that are rather impressive to look at. From a gorgeous spiritual light show on a bedroom ceiling, to a simple puff of mist evaporating off a wedding ring, creatives were creating, and it shows.

The Tension - as mentioned above, this is very much a haunted house movie, and there is a constant sense of fear - a malicious antagonist we can’t see. In Amityville Horror, and Poltergeist, viewers always ask themselves: Why don’t they just leave? In House of Ashes, Mia can’t. We’re scared for her. That fear works. The atmosphere is boosted tremendously by frightening sound design work and Antoine Lamothe’s threatening and foreboding score.

The Subtext. It isn’t easy to discuss societal issues without boring your viewers. But co-writers Steve Johanson and Izzy Lee manage to convey fears about where our world is heading by peppering the story with symbolism and representative characters. Even the titular ashes (Adam’s) loom over the storytelling as a reminder of what was and what has become of what was.

A Performance I Can’t Spoil - but man, does one character get dark. It’s unsettling to watch. You’ll agree.

Mick Garris – Horror legend Mick Garris has one line of VO in this movie – and that line leads to the gaggiest moment in the film. If you’re going to have horror royalty do a cameo, may as well be at a vital moment.

All that being said, the movie isn’t perfect. The central relationship needs more development, and the characters often behave unrealistically – such as going to sleep moments after a potential intruder violently slams on the front door – at a time when they are being actively threatened by neighbors and strangers. So while the movie has some room for improvement, it works on many fronts, and it gives tremendous food for thought. It’s also worth reminding readers – especially at WYH - that studio-made films have infinitely more money, more time, and more personnel than indies. Completing a movie alone is admirable. But to complete an independent feature film and have it hit some necessary notes for viewers, like those I’ve listed in the paragraphs above, is a true accomplishment. Furthermore, most of what is released by studios has been audience tested and led thoroughly through a content revision process designed by the risk-averse. If you want to see what artists are creating when left to their own devices, you should be consuming independent films.

So please give this film a watch, and do it in a dark space with loud speakers. Yes - the movie has a lot to say, but it says those things through well-executed horror conventions. It’s dark, but there’s shivers, jumps, and some true stomach-turners to be found in it as well. And ashes. There are so many ashes.

Aaron Barrocas is an award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker, and editor living in Los Angeles. He has spent the past 25 years as an active part of the entertainment industry.
AaronBarrocas.com