The Night House: Release Date, Trailer And More

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This August, you're invited to take a trip to The Night House. The highly effective horror film from director David Bruckner stars Rebecca Hall as a widow dealing with the supernatural. Below, I've rounded up everything there is you need to know about The Night House before it hits theaters.

The Night House release date is currently set for August 20, 2021. As of this moment, it's exclusive to theaters – but it could always end up available digitally at a later date. The Night House first had its world premiere on January 24, 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival. It was first given a July 16, 2021 release date before being moved back to August. Personally, I think they should've moved it closer to Halloween to cash in on all the spookiness, but that's me.

The Night House is a new horror movie from filmmaker David Bruckner, who helmed segments in the horror anthology films The Signal, V/H/S, and Southbound. He also directed The Ritual, and will helm the upcoming Hellraiser reboot. I caught The Night House at Sundance, and while the movie has a few issues on a script level, it's pretty damn effective at giving you the creeps. As I wrote in my review:

Bruckner, who helmed The Ritual, as well as one of the best segments of VHS ("Amateur Night"), is adept at building dread. He lets the camera linger longer than it should, creating a palpable sense of unease. And he knows how to stage one hell of a jump scare. Make that jump scares – there's one sequence midway through the film where the filmmaker packs on one genuinely scary jump scare after another, after another, after another. The construction of the scene is remarkable – just when you think things are going to let-up another jarring event occurs.

Here's The Night House synopsis:

The Night House follows a widow (Rebecca Hall) who begins to uncover her recently deceased husband's disturbing secrets.

The Sundance synopsis is a bit more detailed:

Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep together—but then the dreams come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house call to her, beckoning with a ghostly allure. But the harsh light of day washes away any proof of a haunting. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into his belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and terrible and a mystery she's determined to resolve.

As mentioned above, The Night House comes from director David Bruckner. "I think exploring fear and anxiety is a reason to go to movies and it's something that I have taken an interest in, translating those kinds of emotions into horror tropes and putting them on screen. It's something that fascinates me," Bruckner said. I think there are so many different subgenres within horror that it doesn't even feel to me like I'm not moving on to something new. Each one feels like a very fresh and new story of its own life and its own rules and it's own universe so it's fascinating to me for that reason. I like all kinds of movies but I do turn out to see most of the horror films that are out every year and I would say horror remains my primary interest."

The Night House has a script by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. David S. Goyer, Keith Levine, and John Zois produce. Ben Lovett handles the film's score (which is quite good), while Elisha Christian is the cinematographer. Searchlight Pictures will be distributing the film.

The Night House stars Rebecca Hall, who is great in pretty much anything. She was also recently seen in Godzilla vs. Kong, for those tracking her career (which you should be doing). The film also features Sarah Goldberg,  Evan Jonigkeit, Stacy Martin, and Vondie Curtis-Hall. The cast isn't particularly large because this is mostly a one-woman show, with the majority of the movie focused on Hall's character.