I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House Film Review

Released: 2016

Director: Oz Perkins

Producer: Rob Paris, Robert Menzies

Running time: 1 hr 29 mins

Genre: Thriller, Horror

Distributed by: Netflix

The Film

This film is a Netflix original production. It tookmy interest when I was flicking through the list of films to watch on Netflix, so decided to sit down one afternoon and watch it. Iris Blum lives alone in a large house in New England. She's quite a reclusive lady and has dementia. Mr Waxcap is the estate manager for Iris, and hires Lilly Saylor to be a live in carer for her. Iris is a retired author of horror books. It is quite early on in the film that we notice that Iris starts calling Lily by the name of Polly. Mr Waxcup claims that Polly is a character in one of Iris's books called The Lady in the Walls. Strange things soon start happening in the house when Lily notices some mould on the wall which gets increasingly larger over the following months. Oddly, she also notices mould on her arms one day. But the strange thing is, when Iris calls her she is distracted. When she looks back her arms are back to normal.

Polly as I say, is mentioned in one of Lily's books, may not be fictitious as Lily finds a draught of the book. She thinks an actual murder may of taken place. And throughout the film we see the ghost of Polly in the house dressed in period clothing. This eerie and creepy film brings to life the difference between fantasy and reality as Lily struggles to live in this big house caring for a woman who was once prolific in writing horror stories.

Oz Perkins has done a perfect job in creating a masterpiece with this film. The film is dark and eerie and the dark background music helps to set the scene. Iris Blum is a woman of few words, but we soon get to understand why she is calling Lily by the name of Polly. The big, gothic house is dark and spooky. Certainly a very lonely place for Lily. Although there is no blood or violence in the film, it is still a chilling film to watch. There's not really any scenes that will make you jump or scream in fright. But saying that, this is still a dark and eerie film to watch with chilling aspects as you see the ghost of Polly popping up throughout the film.

There are few people in this film, which gives the film that bit of an edge. This is definitely not an action packed film, but still an interesting film to watch. We learn quite early on in the film that Lily will not make it out of the house alive as she does state that she will never live to be 29. So you can expect things to happen. I felt quite sorry for Lily, as she came across as such a softly spoken, sweet young lady. I also felt the same for Iris Blum. Her health had clearly deteriorated and I did feel for her. Lily did take good care for her, I could see that. But the darkness that lingered over the house was clear to see.