'The Night House' Trailer: Something's Haunting Rebecca Hall

Directed by David Bruckner (The Ritual), The Night House first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January of 2020. /Film's own Chris Evangelista reviewed the horror movie, praising the many effective jump scares as well as star Rebecca Hall's impeccable and convincing performance. Acquired by Searchlight Pictures, the original release date was set for July 2021 before being pushed back. As the new release date draws near, we have a new trailer for the paranormal thriller. You can see it for yourself below.

You might think there isn't much fresh ground to explore when it comes to some poor protagonist, usually dealing with the repercussions of some tragic backstory, having to navigate a haunted house that is sure to hold plenty of sinister secrets and mysteries. This time, a widowed Rebecca Hall is left all alone in a remote lake house. Naturally, things escalate from there.

The neat wrinkle teased both in this trailer and in previous ones is that Hall's character Beth discovers a mirror image of her own house. This tends to be another horror trope that filmmakers return to every now and then (Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho appears to explore similar thematic territory, though with individuals rather than locales), and it's certainly used to full effect here in The Night House.

Having directed 2017's The Ritual, Bruckner is well acquainted with the horror scene and the art of building tension, dread, and most importantly jump scares. As mentioned in our review of the film, "These are the ones designed to startle and shake you with genuinely scary moments, not faux distractions. David Bruckner's The Night House is full of several of these genuine jump scares – and boy oh boy are they effective."

The cast of The Night House includes Sarah Goldberg (Barry), Vondie Curtis Hall (Eve's Bayou), Evan Jonigkeit (Togetherish), and Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac) in addition to Rebecca Hall.

The Night House is set for a theatrical release on August 20, 2021. Here's the synopsis:

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. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into her husband's belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and terrible and a mystery she's determined to resolve.