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Stars: Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku, Malaika Wakoli-Abigaba, Matt Smith, Javier Botet, Yvonne Campbell, Vivienne Soam, Lola May, Kevin Layne | Written by Felicity Evans, Toby Venables, Remi Weekes | Directed by Remi Weekes

Horror is effective when it pulls the audience into an experience. They have to care about the people on the screen and actually want them to be safe. Horror also works best when it works on the fear of the unknown and taps into things that make the audience uncomfortable. This is what makes His House a truly creepy experience.

A refugee couple manage to escape war-torn South Sudan and make their way to the UK. When they are given a place to live in a small English town they should feel safe, but something is lurking beneath the surface of the house they now call home.

It’s not only seasoned horror fans who will make some presumptions...

“My perspective is about other people that cinema doesn’t necessarily cater for,” says director Remi Weekes, whose debut His House recently arrived on Netflix. It’s an extremely accomplished first film which tackles big social issues while leaning hard into horror. In the run up to the film’s release talk of awards was being bandied about. The movie landed on Netflix on October 30 – just before Halloween, certainly, but also traditionally the start of the run up to the big awards push. 2020 is of course a trash fire, with awards season shifted till later in 2021 but we wouldn’t rule out attention falling on Weekes’ film, cast and crew.

“I think there’s a bit of confusion as to which box to put it in,” says Weekes.

His House is the story of two Sudanese refugees (Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu) who make it to Britain and are put...

The old saying goes: “home is where the heart is.” But what if your heart is rotten and prevents you from leaving the baggage of the past behind? This is the question Remi Week’s new film, His House, aims to answer.

Debuting on Netflix, His House is a mashup of drama and horror that addresses what it’s like to enter a foreign land after escaping a war-torn nation and exploring the desperation to fit into a culture that isn’t your own and the horrors that come with it. The third act stifles the narrative ever so slightly, which prevents this good movie from becoming a great one.

Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) have escaped South Sudan to seek asylum in England and want to become citizens. Bol is determined not to go back while Rial is tethered to her native land. Their daughter Nyagak (Malaika Wakoli-Abigaba...

If you’re still looking for a horror movie to watch tonight, then Netflix‘s His House may be a good option. The thriller from Remi Weekes is already doing well with audiences and critics, to the extent that it’s now the fifth most-watched film on the platform in the United States. What, then, can we attribute His House‘s success to?

Well, tackling the refugee crisis, Weekes’ picture benefits from a timely story by Toby Venables and Felicity Evans. The plot focuses on Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) as a South Sudanese couple forced into a dangerous journey to the UK, one that ends up with them being housed in a London building that holds disturbing secrets. Despite trying to assimilate, Bol has to deal with the ghosts of their past and how they’ve followed them to their new home.

Viewers have been quick to...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on The Eddie Volkman Show on Wssr-fm on October 16th, 2020, reviewing a new Netflix Halloween release, “Our House,” plus a preview of the produced-in-Chicago film “The Misadventures of Mistress Maneater.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

”His House” involves a from-Africa couple (Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku) who escape from the war torn South Sudan, and is put up as refugees in public housing in London. They have bought their demons with them, however, and it starts to attack them – horror film style – from their tenement housing. Yes, this is a symbolic film, but it’s also pretty creepy, as many images of voodoo and witchery are no doubt rooted in the mystery of Africa.

“His House” is on Netflix beginning October 30th. Featuring Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku, Javier Botet and Matt Smith. Written by Felicity Evans, Toby Venables and Remi Weekes. Directed by Remi Weekes. Rated “TV-...

Death as a House: Weekes Finds Woe in Immigration Horror

It’s a trauma so innately horrific on the surface the thought of collapsing it into what’s essentially a haunted house thriller might seem tasteless, but Remi Weekes masterfully blends the realities of refugees with a heaping dose of metaphorical mental health stress in directorial debut His House. On its own, a refugee seeking asylum is anxiety-laden enough, but Weekes, working from a story by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables, re-vamps the energies of kismet for a contemporary fairy tale about survivor’s guilt, xenophobia, and retribution. A pair of finely tuned lead performances assist in selling the success of what could have been another exercise in familiarity, showcasing a variety of sinister ordeals encapsulated almost entirely within a claustrophobic trap house.…...

This weekend is Halloween and Focus Features is delivering some scares with the Jacob Chase-directed horror Come Play, which opens in theaters starting today.

Come Play is based on Chase’s 2017 short film Larry. The feature version which is dubbed as “a terrifying new vision in horror” follows Oliver (newcomer Azhy Robertson), a lonely young boy who feels different from everyone else. Desperate for a friend, he seeks solace and refuge in his ever-present cell phone and tablet. When a mysterious creature uses Oliver’s devices against him to break into our world, Oliver’s parents (Gillian Jacobs and John Gallagher Jr.) must fight to save their son from the monster beyond the screen.

The horror film was set to open in theaters on July 24, but like all movies, the release date shifted due to the pandemic. However, to release the movie on Halloween weekend seems more appropriate. Sony...

As Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) sits in a hospital, a doctor (Emily Taaffe) takes her blood and notices marks on her skin. One is on her arm; the other, the right side of her neck. The patient explains that her South Sudanese village had two tribes and, due to her not being part of just one, she wears both their respective symbols. Then her eyes lightly focus and she explains: “I survive by belonging nowhere.” There’s a lot of scary stuff going on in Remi Weekes’ feature debut His House, but the most thorough one is the idea that belonging and thriving are mutually exclusive.

Rial, as it so happens, has just immigrated to suburban England with her husband, Bol (Sope Dirisu). She hasn’t been particularly eager to assimilate. He, on the other hand, is much more so. “We’re good people,” he reassures British government agents (Matt Smith...

While the Sundance 2020 market started slow, sales started to pick up late Sunday night with “The Night House” and “Herself,” followed by “Ironbark” and “Uncle Frank” on Monday morning. Since then a handful of documentaries have sold, and Andy Sambert’s “Palm Springs” set a new festival sales record at $17.5 million.

A lot of films selected as part of the festival program also already had distribution in place. Others pre-sold before the festival even began: “The Father,” the documentary “Mucho Mucho Amor” and the midnight thriller “His House” have already found homes. We’ll be updating this list with any additional sales as they come in.

Also Read: 16 Buzziest Sundance Movies for Sale in 2020, From Julianne Moore's 'The Glorias' to Michael Keaton's 'Worth' (Photos)

Sundance Institute

“Boys State”

Apple and A24 bought the global rights to political documentary “Boys State” on Monday, which is playing in the U.

A day before the Sundance Film Festival begins, Netflix acquired the global rights to the Midnight thriller “His House,” an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.

Remi Weekes wrote and directed the film that is set to premiere on Monday in the Midnight section. Weekes wrote the script with Felicity Evans and Toby Venables.

The film stars Wunmi Mosaku (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) and Sope Dirisu (“The Huntsman: Winter’s War”). It follows a young refugee couple that escapes Sudan and tries to adjust to their new life in a small English town. Soon, however, an evil force starts to surface.

Also Read: Netflix Acquires Documentary 'Mucho Mucho Amor' Ahead of Sundance

Producers are New Regency’s Arnon Milchan, Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee, Martin Gentles and Edward King of Starchild Pictures and Aidan Elliott, in association with BBC. New Regency’s Yariv Milchan,...

Exclusive: On the eve of the start of the Sundance Film Festival, Netflix has gotten on the board early by making a preemptive world rights acquisition of His House, a film written and directed by Remi Weekes that premieres Monday in the Midnight Section and fuses genre to a most timely premise. A young refugee couple makes a harrowing escape from war-torn Sudan, and then struggle to adjust to their new life in a small English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface. Weekes wrote the script with Felicity Evans and Toby Venables.

The film, which stars Wunmi Mosaku (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Sope Dirisu (The Huntsman: Winter’s War) and Matt Smith, is a co-production between New Regency and BBC. Pic is produced by New Regency’s Arnon Milchan, Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee, Martin Gentles and Edward King of Starchild Pictures and Aidan Elliott in association with BBC.