IN THE HOUSE OF FLIES (2012)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed by Gabriel Carrer.

Written by Angus McLellan.

Check out the trailer here!!

Though the premise isn’t all that new, with some tight and crisp direction and fantastic performances from its cast, IN THE HOUSE OF FLIES is a film to look out for. Directed by Gabriel Carrer and written with heart-wrenching dialog from Angus McLellan, IN THE HOUSE OF FLIES works because you like the two people in peril and want them to live on despite the harrowing experience they find themselves in.

Two lovers (Linsay Smith and Ryan Kotack) are enjoying a relaxing summer day at an amusement park in the city. When they go to their car, they smell some kind of chemical and quickly pass out only to wake up in a small basement room with four locked suitcases, a phone, and nothing else. Though they have each other, lack of food, water, and hope of rescue start to eat away at their relationship, a stress compounded by a mysterious voice on the phone taunting them with accusations, revelations, and directions to do things to one another. This seemingly random and senseless abduction is the kind of peril we see a lot in films these days, most of the time with home invasion films. Here instead of the familiar setting, we are enmeshed in a familiar and seemingly perfect relationship between these two talented actors and the story is more effective because of it.

Henry Rollins provides the voice on the phone telling the couple things to do and say to one another. The performer has a commanding voice, which is instantly recognizable. I know it is a selling point for this film as Rollins is the biggest name in the film, but some part of me wishes I didn’t know it was Rollins until the end. Still the horrifying things Rollins instructs the couple to do are more effective given his authoritarian tone.

Given the single locale and limited setting of this film, one would think that the story would get repetitious or boring. Since most of the film takes place in the concrete basement of a shack, Gabriel Carrer was faced with a challenge of making everything look interesting and does so with flying colors. Extreme close ups of insects, puddles, and piles of dirt on the floor help perk up the pace of the film. It is as if the director is forcing us to look at the little things that we would usually just glace over and not notice. Here the couple’s confinement is more claustrophobic in that we are pulled in and forced to see every crack, crevice, and blemish.

I can’t praise this film enough for how successful it was at making such a simple story so emotionally taxing, so intricately detailed, and so heavily nuanced. The films resolution doesn’t make it easy on the couple or the viewer making it even more of a harrowing experience. Put IN THE HOUSE OF FLIES on your horror must-see list. It most definitely deserves a reserved spot for its tight directing and fantastic performances.