His House (2020) is an interesting genre crossing film directed by Remi Weekes where the concept of horror and the feelings of refugees are two main components of the tale. The film is about a Sudanese couple named Bol and Rial who manage to escape from the horrors of civil war in their country by coming to England to seek refuge. As the procedural routine goes, they are taken away to a grant-aided run down house. After sometime, however, they understand that they are not the only living beings in that house — something wicked slithers towards them and brings back the tormenting memories they are not yet done with. The work attempts to interpret the periods without denouncing any of them, thus addressing the very essence of trauma, guilt, and, above all, the refugee issue.
Another aspect that captivated me about the movie His House was how social issues were put together with horror. The image of the supernatural in the house is the psychological baggage the couple tries so desperately to leave behind. The movie presents the themes of war, dislocation and adaptation through a multidisciplinary approach where sense of horror is metaphorical. It is this aspect of the film that struck me the most as it deals with the real and the imaginary in a very novel way.
What makes His House particularly interesting is that this was the first film by Remi Weekes and it was quite a success with regard to reviews and the plot. The film was first shown in the Sundance Film Festival and was later released on Netflix making it accessible to many. Although due to its release on streaming media it did not do well at the box office, it immediately gained a lot of horror movie fans because of its refreshing and imaginative take on the genre. To me, what made the film so different from the rest in the genre is the fact that it is a horror film that deals with very relevant and contemporary social issues making it the most powerful genre films that I have come across in the past few years.