52 Pick-Up # 37 – I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

Oh, thank goodness, it actually feels like fall now.

I say this both for its own sake and also for the fact it's made the fact this month's draws have skewed towards a pre-game for spooky season feel even more appropriate.

But, before we go into that, as per custom, welcome back to 52 Pick-Up. This is now week 37 of a year long bid to keep up writing and going through the cinematic to do list with 52 first time movie watches, some chosen at random, some with a weighted thematic angle, and offering a write up of general first impressions.

Continuing last week's foray into more horror titles, this week I'm also getting the chance to address a gap in the work of a director who has been getting my attention more and more the past few years. I get why Osgood Perkins isn't a director who really clicks with everyone, but overall I have been appreciative of his style and voice in everything I've seen so far.

And in finally going back to check out I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House? Let me start by saying 'Oh, Goddammit, Netflix.'

Okay, I should elaborate. I'm not saying that to condemn this movie's existence. I wouldn't say this became my favorite from him, but there's enough in here that I appreciate, even as I'm still mulling over some of it. The reason I'm blaming the streaming company that was the distributor for this movie is because the very nature of their platform really feels like it undercut what is the strongest piece of this movie.

Alas, I'm getting all off format here. Stick a pin in that. We'll do the pitch and then I'll get back on it.

In the most general terms, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House concerns Lily (Rita Wilson), a hospice nurse assigned to care for Iris (Paula Prentiss) an aging horror writer in the advanced stages of dementia. Iris lives in a quiet, remote house that Lily finds to be unsettling for the sense that there may be more than herself and Iris in residence – a feeling only added to after a discussion with the manager of Iris's estate (Bob Balaban.) Lily soon finds herself drawn more into both the life of her patient as well as the larger circumstances of her patient's work and house.

That may be the most neutral way I can put the last part. Admittedly, I do that less to avoid a glaring spoiler, particularly as part of the revelation of this movie is set up in the opening narration, and more to avoid turning the pitch into a drawn out rundown of half of the movie.

I'll be coming back to that soon, but first, I did set this up before, so back to my grievance point.

There's a number of things I could say I liked about this. If it came to a single thing I would single out though? It's the atmosphere. This certainly isn't isolated for Perkins – in fact, a good general sense of atmosphere has been a strong suit of his going back to The Blackcoat's Daughter. Even by his standard, however, this is a strong flex of his abilities. 

Which comes to why I'm annoyed with Netflix in this case: as a horror movie goes, this is a very quiet film. It's a haunted house film, but not in the style of things that pop and go 'Boo!' but more in the case of a quieter sort of haunting. In this case, it's one the movie establishes in its opening narration. This describes the dead not as figures of malevolence or purpose, but simply those who haven't quite been able to let go of the spot of their death. Unable to completely leave the spot, trying for one last look that is no longer there, the simply linger. Linger, and with time, rot. Again, there is a quiet to this that is equal parts sad and chilling in how it's presented. It also makes how the haunting is presented in this in many cases as moments of stillness, watching the dead slowly fade into view rather than pop in and vanish quickly. It's an effective slow burn, but one I found myself watching and thinking 'This could have played so well in a theater.'

Don't get me wrong, I'm still glad to have watched this in any format. But this also isn't the first movie Netflix got distribution rights for, and with that went straight to streaming, that I found myself watching and thinking 'This could have looked so much better with a big screen option.'

I know that's not the movie's fault, but it is something I had to get out there, because again, this movie has a great sense of atmosphere and it's frustrating that streaming seems to undercut that.

In general, like I said above, I feel like this is one I'm going to be mulling over more. In particular with the idea the movie starts from as stated above, the idea of the dead not as forces tethered by any sort of fate or grand gesture but simply lingering. Sometimes seen by the living, but often not, over time, slowly succumbing to a sort of rot born of their inability to let go.

It's a heady idea that the movie makes some interesting exploration on, and one where the more I think on it, the more I wish I'd allowed myself more than a week for. But then, that's the whole point of this project – go for what you feel in the short term. Maybe some of these will get revisited in some future project, maybe they won't. For now, I'm just gonna get through the 52.

In closing for now, I'll just say if you've liked what you've seen from Perkins before this, I'd say it's worth giving a try. There's a quieter more personal touch to it (the movie even opens with a dedication to his father, and was initially born from an idea inspired by him) and it's an interesting mode to see Perkins in.

Now, as I come into the back of September, we have two more entries to go before the month is up. Suffice it to say, there will be no points awarded to anyone who's figured out by now how I'll be weighting next month's picks. I say this now as the remaining two are dipping a bit out of spooky season pre-gaming.

A bit, but not completely.

Next week, I continue with a dovetail of this week in directors I'm playing catch-up on with another gap I had for Denis Villeneuve. It's not quite leaving horror entirely, but we're at least staying in the ballpark with his doppleganger movie Enemy.

Till then.