The Hellmans are moving house. And because this is a movie written and directed by Sean Byrne -his sophomore feature after the excellent The Loved Ones- the horrors will go a little beyond a looming mortgage and financial insecurity.
Yes, it's a haunted house film, or maybe about demonic possession - these things overlap (as evidenced by all the "the haunting of..." films). The previous owners were murdered by their adult son Ray (Pruitt Taylor Vince) when they wouldn't let him play power chords on his flying V guitar to drown out the voices that come from one particular spot in one particular wall (a sort of musical satanic litany provided by the drone metal band Sun O)))). The police wrote it off as an accident, though, and he's still hovering around his old house, lost and forlorn - and free to go around murdering children at the behest of the voice from the wall.
Ray's spirit-banishing metal playing is not just a cute way to signal channeling dark impulses towards the artistic (a minor theme in the movie that sadly is there to provide some satanic distractions than anything else); It ties in with the film's aesthetic, which is suffused in heavy metal lore, and not just in the soundtrack. The Hellman family - at least Jesse, the father (Ethan Embry, looking weathered as fuck) and Zooey, the daughter (Kiara Glasco) are full-on metalheads, rocking Metallica, Slayer and Sun O))) shirts throughout the movie; All bands are represented in the (great) soundtrack, along with original music from Michael Yezerski.
The mother, Astrid (Shiri Appleby), is the odd one out - the heaviest she seems to get is Queens of the Stone Age. She's also the breadwinner, providing for her husband's more bohemian lifestyle.
They're a likeable, loving bunch, which the film cannily exploits when it starts turning the screws: First by having the voice from the wall reach out to Jessie, infusing his painting with some creepy overtones, and then by having Ray make a house visit and setting his sights on poor Zooey.
What follows is a harrowing series of escapes and confrontations - the supernatural elements provide some strong imagery, but most of the horror is more mundane and extremely effective.
It's a nasty, brutal little film, suffused with enough energy and moving at a quick enough pace that the nastier elements don't detract from its fun, but still provide enough menace to make any outcomes uncertain. There's a bit of bloodshed, but the film relies more on realistic suffering to give it a kick, which understandably might turn some people off.
It's a shame Byrne can only seem to get a project off the ground once a decade; there's a distinctly Australian sense of fun to his brand of bleak cruelty I really appreciate.
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