The Horror Show
House of Dust
by A.D. Calvo
I was turned on to House of Dust by a friend who is quite in-tune with the goings on of film productions in the Connecticut area. Like myself, Dust was made in the Nutmeg state and although I've never been the “Hometown pride” type whatsoever, I was still curious. I've been burned by seeing films based on this location before. It's how I ended up watching the mess of a film that is Plague Town. However, without any actual personal connection to House of Dust or anyone involved, I was eager to at least take a crack at checking it out for review purposes, whether the outcome be praising it or bashing it, along with every possibility in between. Luckily, this ended up being a film that I can feel good about reviewing, because it's one that I am happy to bring more attention to.
House of Duststarts off giving you a look into the back-story. We find ourselves at a psychiatric facility back in the day when the field was far more experimental and cruel than it is today. We meet several patients who are in the midst of barbaric treatment that come to a rather toasty end courtesy of the institution’s in-home incinerator.
From here we meet our protagonists, who are a group of college students. The primary focus is a new student named Emma (Inbar Lavi). This will be her first time away from home and it is made clear right off the bat that she has a history of mental illness. She soon is introduced to her new roommate Gabby (Holland Roden) as well as the two guys across the hall. The two men in question are the loose and easy going Dylan (Eddie Hassell) and the more responsible Kolt (Steven Grayhm). At first things seem like fairly cliché fair, complete with a hierarchy of “Mean Girls” who live in the same dorms. I even had a few zingers planned out in my head to criticize these aspects (I can't help myself). However, with the exception of the nasty female students who stay fairly basic, most of the more cliché elements dissipate and all the main characters evolve into their own interesting skin.
The college happens to house the old institution that is now abandoned. One night, during a party, the new friends decide to check the place out, despite the watchful eye of a campus security guard. By accidentally breaking jars containing the ashy remains of the past patients, they breathe in some of the fumes. This one act kick starts what is to follow, which consists of all the characters involved becoming overtaken by the respective patients, including a serial killer, that the dust represented.
The film gets going pretty quickly, which I appreciate. It seems a little convenient at times, but I vastly prefer that over watching a bunch of college students get drunk and do stupid crap. The pacing is very fluid and there are several genuinely creepy moments, even if they are mostly jump-scares. Oddly enough, this is the second movie in a row that I've reviewed centering on a mentally ill girl starting college, but this one fairs much better. I'm not saying that the film depicts an authentic representation of mental problems, few films do, but it at least doesn't come across insulting or overly stereotypical.
I was especially impressed with the character Dylan. Like with all the main characters, the role is performed well and the character himself veers from the expected. What starts off as a typical party boy type of concept quickly evolves into a full-fledged character whose personality isn't always what you'd expect. Sure, some of the other characters are a little on the typical side, but they aren't really that important, either. The central characters are different and interesting enough to keep me entertained.
The possession doesn't completely take over at first and it starts somewhat subtly. At one point I was ready to criticize the film for taking a non-cliché of a character and steering him right in that direction, only to realize that his change in mentality was the beginning of the central plot rising above water. This was a pleasant surprise. At first, the characters are still fully aware of who they are, but start to take on traits of the patients they've unwittingly breathed into themselves. An example of this is when the character Dylan continues to call his roommate by his actual name (as opposed to the patient occupying him) and doing normal college things while suddenly becoming overtaken with obsession compulsive cleaning. One pet peeve of mine is when movie characters go from normal to crazy and it's obvious they are simply trying to do an impression of what they think “Crazy Killer” is like. It rarely works. Few films (notably one of my favorites and past reviewed films The Signal) can pull it off correctly. I'm not saying that the actors in Dust give a flawless, accurate portrayal of criminal insanity, but the performances stay far enough away from cheesy to be any kind of a problem.
Unlike a lot of youngster-focused horror films, Dus doesn't go out of its way with corniness to remind you that you are watching a movie. Rather than have a character sit down and calmly explain the origins to a bunch of drunk idiots who would never be paying attention in real life, the film instead shows us what we are dealing with in the first scene. When one character does recount what had happened in the institution years ago, it's in a quick and half-committed way that comes off as natural. After all, at this point they are just a bunch of college kids before classes start, looking for a good time.
House of Dust seems very aware of which characters are supposed to be annoying and which are not, and handles them accordingly. I had no problem being engaged with the main characters as none of them particularly irritated me, as most similar characters typically do in other efforts. There were a few occasions where things seemed overly-simplistic. One example being the “Mean Girl” characters calling the new girl weird and crazy despite the fact that all she was doing the first time they saw her was looking for her dorm. It's a forgivable flaw, however, because it's a quickly paced flick and I'd rather it be a little odd in that area than spend too much time boring us with growing details.
With the exception of the amazing and influential Evil Dead films, I'm usually not a huge fan of “Possession” stories. It's a personal preference, but they are often boring to me and get far too caught up with by-the-book measures and over-complication. I don't need two thirds of a film being the main character doing research and trying to figure out what's going on in the most boring ways possible. Some movies have done this well, but most attempts are overwhelmingly negative. Dust, however, manages to never be confusing while still not trying to trick you into watching a half-assed detective movie. Most movies like this also have infuriatingly stupid or confusing endings and I'm happy to report that Dust doesn't suffer from this cinematic disease.
All in all, I really enjoyed House of Dust. It wasn't the greatest horror movie I've ever seen, nor was it groundbreaking, but I found it very entertaining and I enjoyed watching it, which is all I can really ask from a movie. It may not be edge-of-your-seat terror, but most hardened horror fans are passed the point of feeling such things anyway, and it's refreshing just to see a competent, good movie every now and again. Luckily for me, House of Dust fell into this category quite nicely.
P.J. Griffin, HMS
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