STARRING: SYDNEY PARK, THEODORE PELLERIN, DALE WHIBELY, AND SARAH DUGDALE
DIRECTOR: PATRICK BRICE
RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 6, 2021
There’s Someone Inside Your House is an American slasher film adapted from the 2017 novel of the same name by Stephanie Perkins. There are many successful novels-to-film adaptations such as The Godfather (1972), adapted from Mario Puzo’s novel and Little Women adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel. On the other hand, movies such as The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) and Divergent Series: Alegiant (2016) were disappointing adaptations that left fans of the novels unsatisfied. Since it is an American slasher film, a Halloween favorite, and a novel-to-film adaptation, There’s Someone Inside Your House seemed promising.
The film opens with Jackson (Markian Tarasuik), a football player from Osborne High School, walking into his home while conversing on the phone with his friend Macon (Zane Clifford). He goes to bed after setting an alarm for the evening on his phone. When he wakes up, his phone is missing, his front door is wide open, and his truck is gone. He senses that somebody must have entered his home, so he proceeds to dial 911. In the process, he notices a photograph of him hazing a fellow teammate, Caleb (Burkley Duffield). Shaken up, he ends the 911 call and sees more pictures of his despicable act leading to a closet filled with a hundred more photographs. Suddenly, Jackson gets attacked by an unknown figure wearing a mask that resembles his face. After murdering Jackson, the killer exposes his secrets by mass messaging the town. With the town in disarray, the next murder confirms that the killer is targeting those with dark secrets.
The most intriguing character within the film is Mikani Young (Sydney Park), a transfer student from Hawaii who lives with her grandmother. The film focuses on her and her friends, Alex (Asjha Cooper), Darby (Jesse LaTourette), Rodrigo (Diego Josef), and Zach (Dale Whibley), the high school outcasts. Mikani’s friends speculate about who the murderer is, and they all point to reclusive Ollie (Théodore Pellerin), whom Mikani is secretly seeing. Mikani has a secret of her own that her friends are unaware of, and she is concerned that she may be next on the killer’s hit list.
The audience is left to make assumptions on why the high school Seniors are getting murdered and the secrets they must be hiding. The film does have great storytelling as the characters have depth and different dynamics. They are also people that viewers can relate to because everyone has a secret that they would rather keep hidden. The movie, which is inclusive in its representation of people is more dramatic than the book which makes it more entertaining. However, this film falls short of many slasher films in terms of the scare factor.