A24 has built quite a reputation for its fantastic horror movies. This studio brought us movies like Hereditary, Climax, and The VVitch. The latter was directed by Robert Eggers, who has created other excellent films like The Lighthouse and The Northman, and he has an upcoming Nosferatu movie. Why do I bring up Robert Eggers? Did he direct this movie? No, his two brothers, Mark and Sam, made this movie. They had much to live up to, and I can’t say they did. The Front Room is one of the most dreadfully annoying movies I’ve seen in my entire life.
It pains me to write any of this because, contrary to popular belief, I don’t always enjoy writing negative reviews. Filmmakers pour their blood, sweat, and tears into making movies they hope audiences will enjoy. A horror comedy movie like The Front Room is designed to be that fun, crowd-pleaser horror film that haunts and entertains you simultaneously. The tone is admirable, but I can’t recommend this movie in the slightest because it does not make you laugh, nor does it scare you. The sole effect this movie will have on you is pure irritation.
From the start, the dialogue feels off. The pacing and content of each dialogue scene feel specifically designed to have as little impact as possible. None of it is funny or dramatic; it’s all just bland. The film doesn’t do a terrible job of setting up the characters. We learn that our main couple once had a child who died, and now Belinda, played by Brandy, is pregnant again. But after her husband’s father dies, they must take in his mother, Solange, played by Kathryn Hunter.
The Front Room is playing into the satire of how horrible our mothers-in-law can be. This script wants us to imagine being in this situation and how nightmarish that would be. But the film is at the mercy of its characters, some of the most unlikable people you can spend a blessedly brief 95 minutes with. Firstly, the couple, Belinda and Norman (Andrew Burnap), has no chemistry whatsoever. I’m tired of seeing couples on screen where I have no idea why I should buy into them and their relationship. They feel less like a couple and more like co-workers paid to exist in the same space.
Their performances are not terrible. Brandy’s performance is nothing special despite the script’s constant attempts to get us to root for her. Norman is a dull character. He has an endless amount of work to do, leaves his pregnant wife alone to take care of his mother, and has a traumatic relationship with his mother. The tension between Norman and Solange should have gone somewhere profound and heartbreaking, but nothing comes out of it.
Hunter is the one who’s going the most over-the-top in her role. She seems to be having fun with this wicked elderly lady nobody in their right mind wants to spend time with. But that’s the issue here. She’s very good at being annoying. She’s incessantly whining and doing terrible things. It gets to a point where she is so hard to watch and listen to that I wanted to cover my ears. Props to Hunter for fully committing to the role, but with the rising costs of movie tickets, I struggle to understand why anyone would buy a ticket to this movie so they can subsequently be annoyed for an hour and a half.
You will not laugh at The Front Room because the comedy is unfunny. You will not feel scared for a second because there isn’t anything remotely terrifying in the film. There is not an ounce of suspense. It remains at one long, constant note for the entire movie. It has nothing interesting to say. The film even tries to deal with the idea of racism because we have this interracial couple, causing friction with the conservative mother-in-law. This idea is tackled with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and it feels like the most reductive view of racism. Everything is explored explicitly without any nuance or freedom from the annoyance you feel as you roll your eyes at the dialogue.
Halfway through the film, I finally remembered the genre was supposed to be horror. The Front Room has zero atmosphere, and most of it is spent inside this house. It feels like the type of movie made for very little money. There’s even a very low-quality establishing shot early in the film that looks like it was exported incorrectly. The Eggers brothers often get playful with their framing, using a lot of reflections to create impossible shots. But I can’t vouch for a movie that feels designed to grate on your very last nerve. The ending is ludicrously anticlimactic, and just when you’re hoping for the bittersweet release of the credits rolling, it keeps going and going.
SCORE: 1/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 1 equates to “Awful.”
ComingSoon doesn’t enjoy giving out an awful rating, and it’s generally reserved for video games that are broken or entertainment that is devoid of any redeeming qualities.
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