The Deep House

Some things I like, other things I didn't. The leads, especially Ben, can really make stupid decisions, like being too inquisitive for their own good. If a Jesus Crucifixion statue is guarding a closed door, maybe there is a reason. Even if you are atheist, the house is underwater and the room is probably dangerous if just because of how closed off it was. And if you see two bodies hanging from chains in that room, or you hear piano keys sound in the distance where no one is there (it seems), not too many people would stick around. And, let's be honest, Ben and Tina got more than enough footage of inside the underwater house.

Look I sub to submechanophobia on Reddit so I dig underwater discoveries that once were above ground and really find locating and unearthing lost ships and planes really cool. But Ben can't seem to get enough footage of this place quite unsafe if occupied for a bit too long. I think he had enough for YouTube clicks. Clearly Tina was really ready to get back up to the surface. But Ben seemed incapable of getting out while the going's good. I get it, though. Bustillo and Maury of the great "Inside" really wanted to get the most of this location as they could. But despite how neat I might have found all of the investigation by our leads in scuba gear, an audience wanting scares at a decent pace (as judged by many viewers on Letterboxd alone) seemed disenchanted by how long it takes to get to them.

Doll heads (there was a clown head, too) and candelabras floating in rooms, missing pictures on walls, tape recorders and other devices indicating the family were up to no good, fingernail scratches on the wall of a cabinet, a fish flying out of an attic window, the front door of the house sealed off...there are plenty of little details I appreciated. But maybe the directors fell so in love with their concept of underwater house investigation they didn't know when to quit, and the information access, complete with film projected in a secret room, perhaps overexplains unnecessarily.

But if you have corpses hanging from chains still intact with medieval "shame masks" latched to their faces while hovering over a pentagram ritualistic symbol cut into a circle on the floor below them after removing the Jesus Crucifixion "protective seal" on the door, it might not be wise to stick around very long; I have a hard time feeling sympathy for you if you do. There is curiosity and idiocy. Clicks sure aren't worth being trapped in an underwater haunted house.

The possession angle of the film just didn't work for me, though all the Satanic contents of the house and body parts found in jars (and a painting of the family quite sinister in the living room) sort of work towards that. As the corpses sort of open their eyes after Ben and Tina remove their face coverings and pursue them, I do admit that is the stuff of nightmares. The directors don't turn their movie completely over to Found Footage, opting to use that tech for storytelling devices while still shooting the two leads outside of that so that "The Deep House" remains a movie. Some of the "shot through cam" footage can get a bit frazzled and out of control. But the drone camera has become quite a device for filmmaking. And the early hint of trouble for Tina (holding her breath) does come back at the very end as she tries to swim to the surface.

Word to the wise: don't follow some suspicious-looking Pierre deep into the woods, to a lake where a house is flooded and no one else knows you are there.

3.5/5