Other Doctor Lives: His House (2020)

Jordan Peele didn’t invent the “social thriller,” but he definitely popularized it, which allowed more space for other filmmakers to explore overt social themes through horror. While I know this has meant some projects hitting the market that do this in a lazy way, less creative and more capitalizing on Black trauma as entertainment, His House uses horror to examine the refugee experience in a way that’s captivating and compelling

By the way, Matt Smith is our Doctor of the day, so he’s got the picture here, but I am going to include a more representative image from the film at the end of this post. It just feels like it would be weird to talk about this horror film about refugees from South Sudan and only show a picture of the white dude.

Bol and Rial have fled their war-torn home, walking and running and riding in dusty truck beds and braving open waters in a raft. They’ve been allowed into England and given housing while their asylum case is reviewed. After moving into their dilapidated new home in a bleak housing estate, Bol is forcefully cheerful in his efforts to fit in and prove their worth to their new neighbors, while Rial struggles to adapt. But despite their differing approaches to life in England, it soon becomes clear to both of them that there’s a force lurking in their house, something they didn’t anticipate. As Bol frantically tries to cut it out or chase it away, Rial suspects that it’s something that followed them from South Sudan—an apeth, a night witch that needs to be reckoned with rather than denied.

One thing I like here is that, while there are certainly elements of racism and xenophobia in the story, this isn’t a “the real horror is racism!” film. Instead, the horror has both a supernatural aspect grounded in tribal lore and a psychological/internal aspect derived from the appalling things that Bol and Rial have suffered as refugees. One of the manifestations of the apeth in their house is in the way they see gaunt, haunted figures peering out at them through the cracks and holes in the walls, people who weren’t able to escape. There’s horror, there’s survivor’s guilt, there’s regret and grief and so many feelings tied up in that, and Bol and Rial react to these specters in different ways. It’s at once creepy/frightening and deeply personal/mournful. The effects for showing these horror elements are mostly practical, and it comes off really well.

I’m not familiar with Sope Dirisu, who plays Bol, but he’s very effective in the role. Rial certainly emerges as the more sympathetic character, but even as Bol’s behavior leaves me shouting at him sometimes, I can fully understand why he acts the way he does. After everything they went through getting out of South Sudan, he’s terrified of being sent back, and he feels it’s up to him to hold their new life here together. So he puts on a happy, assimilating face and isn’t about to let a little thing like ghosts in the walls scare him off. He thinks the way to shake the apeth is to lose everything they used to be, to get rid of everything they brought with them from Africa and fully commit themselves to life in England.

This puts him at odds with Rial, beautifully played by Wunmi Mosaku (she recently shone in another social thriller, the HBO series Lovecraft Country.) As much as they suffered under the war, Rial still misses home, still longs for those left behind. She clings to the few items they brought with them and holds to their traditions, bristling when Bol gets on her to speak English, eat with utensils, or wear Western clothing. Although she craves safety like her husband, she doesn’t view England as a promised land and doesn’t let the English make her feel inferior. Halfway through the film, she delivers this masterful speech: “This is what they want. They like to see us crazy. Makes them feel like big men. They don’t want to be reminded it is them that are weak. How poor and lazy and bored they are.”

Matt Smith plays Mark Essworth, Bol and Rial’s liaison from the refugee office. He’s the one who sets them up in their house and explains the rules of their situation as they wait for their asylum claim to be processed. Mark is the sort of guy who probably thinks he’s doing a lot of good in the world but is just terribly overworked. In essence, though, he functions as something of a “good-cop” figure—upbeat and friendly (even as he’s showing you around your garbage-strewn new home with a door that’s falling off its hinges,) but there’s always just this undercurrent of warning. “Make it easy for people,” he encourages when he moves Bol and Rial into their new neighborhood. “Be one of the good ones.”

He makes these racist/xenophobic insinuations with this air of an arm’s length. “Make it easy for people.” The neighbors, the asylum board, whoever—the general “people” who are out there poised to judge Bol and Rial if they’re found wanting in their new country. When Bol comes to him in distress over the house, Mark makes it clear that he can help move them into a different house if that’s what Bol really wants, but it won’t look good. “People, not me,” he emphasizes, “people are gonna ask why he’s biting the hand that’s feeding him.” I like how this is played, and Smith navigates it well. It’s never that blatant, out-in-the-open racism, it’s these little remarks with just enough distance for plausible deniability, those constant implied suggestions that Bol and Rial need to earn the right not to be sent back to the war-ravaged home they fled.

Accent Watch

London. The accent is fine, but Smith is one of those actors who kind of screams “posh” to me. So even though there’s nothing wrong with it, I still feel like it sounds a little weird, like the voice doesn’t match the face. (I’m the same way with Benedict Cumberbatch, for example.)

Recommend?

In General – Yes, if you have a decent tolerance for horror. I’m far from an aficionado, but while I’d say it’s not the most intense example of the genre, it’s definitely scary/disturbing and mixes that with a strong dose of personal trauma.

Matt Smith – I think I would. Even though Smith’s part isn’t huge, he’s good in it, it’s a different sort of role for him to play, and it’s not a long enough film that it’d be prohibitive to watch for his shorter screentime.

Warnings

Violence (including massacres and war crimes,) disturbing images, language, brief drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.