You Should Have Left
by David Koepp
Set in the beautiful Welsh countryside, You Should Have Left is a movie that, in my opinion, you should probably leave unwatched. Starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried as quite the unconvincing married couple, this psychological thriller is riddled with clichés, tropes, and plot devices that don't really work in the film's favor.
I went into this with high hopes because the trailer was so impressive with pacing, tension, and atmosphere all on point that both caught and kept my attention; it's just unfortunate that the same cannot be said for the movie. I guess the best way I could describe this film would be a half ghost story/half dark fable with inconsistent atmosphere, forced paranoia, and bland tension. I watched this with three other people, one of whom fell asleep before it was even halfway over, and the rest of us all called how the story would play out. So, it was no surprise that there was no satisfying conclusion and the “big reveal” was about as exciting and surprising as the rest of the film.
The family, the main focus of the film aside from the house, is really not likeable and the married couple is unfortunately unbelievable. I'm not just talking about the enormous age different between the husband and wife, that is shown to be important to the plot, but there is just absolutely no on-screen chemistry between Bacon and Seyfried. Not to mention that their daughter doesn't even seem like their daughter. No one particularly meshed well with anyone else and no relationships were really fleshed out. The whole family dynamic was really confusing, and again, unbelievable.
You Should Have Left attempts to push paranoia and psychological terror onto its viewers, but instead, what it feels like it does is purposely confuse you — as if that were a good thing — and muck up the pace, falling into the realm of generic and forgettable. Anyone who has read my past reviews knows I enjoy a good, thought-provoking horror film, this one just doesn't do it for me and didn't cause me to dig deep and find any substance or special meaning. This movie is based on a book, so maybe I should have read that before I watched the movie, because after watching I really don't care if I ever read it or hear about it again.
In an attempt to convince myself to like this movie, I read up a bit on it and found that there are supposed to be elements of purgatory and true hidden evils with themes of self-loathing and regret, but even with having things literally spelled out for me, I cannot find a reason to like it despite it sounding and seeming like it would be right up my alley.
All in all, You Should Have Left is underwhelming and my recommendation is a hard pass, at least until it's available for free on Amazon Prime or another streaming service that you're already subscribed to.
Stevie Kopas, HMS