It’s Halloween 2024 and movie lovers are looking for the best kind of spooky films to watch from the safety of home. Well, one great thing about streaming services is they have the metric data to let you know what your best bets are for any kind of TV/movie content – including the best scary movies to watch during Halloween. If you’re a Netflix subscriber, there is one horror film that is currently rated highest: the psychological-supernatural horror film, His House.
What Is Netflix’s His House About?
Synopsis: A refugee couple makes a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, but then they struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface.
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His House stars Wunmi Mosaku (Batman v Superman, Marvel’s Loki), Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London, Slow Horses), and Matt Smith (Doctor Who, House of the Dragon). It is written and directed by Remi Weekes, who is making his feature-film debut, after directing shorts, music videos (Jessie Ware “Say You Love Me”) and a TV miniseries (Fright Bites). Weekes wrote the screenplay based on a story by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables (The Baby Swindler).
Ironically enough, His House isn’t a new release: the film was released on Netflix on October 30, 2020, making it a major comeback kid, having retained the highest score for a horror movie for the last four years. Weekes hasn’t made another film since – but both Mosaku and Dirisu have become breakout stars, while Matt Smith has graduated from fandom level to mainstream fame with the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon.
As of writing this, His House still holds a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes (after 126 reviews), with a 73% audience score.
What Do Critics Say About Netflix’s His House?
The mix of real-world refugee drama, the psychological-horror metaphor it creates, and the supernatural elements needed to make it dark and fantastical all blend perfectly to create a horror movie experience with deep resonance.
Critic Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine’s Vulture said that “His House is beautifully made, and its scares are monstrously effective, but its images of real-world dread remain unresolved, its specters unvanquished. The film leaves you with wounds that won’t heal.”
Amy Nicholson of NPR Los Angeles said that His House is “An absolute knockout. When we’re looking to the horror genre to tell us stories with such emotional resonance… This film does it just fantastically.”
Even more modest reviews – like Variety’s Jessica Kiang – still admit that His House is “An uneven but impressive debut… at its most persuasively terrifying when it gets out of the house and into the existential terror of reality.”
How to Watch His House
His House can only be streamed on Netflix by those with subscriptions.