Horror movies have no shortage of ghosts, monsters, and serial killers. But sometimes, the real world – especially our relationships – is the most terrifying experience of all. The Front Room captures one of these more grounded horrors: the life of a couple forced to live with an ailing estranged relative. (You know, the kind who was very much estranged for a reason.)
The film comes from directors Max and Sam Eggers, who also wrote the script based on a short story by Susan Hill. It stars Brandy (yes, that Brandy) as Belinda, a woman preparing to welcome a baby with her husband Norman (Andrew Burnap). But when Norman’s father suddenly dies, his ultra-religious step-mother Solange (Kathryn Hunter) crashes her way into their idyllic life.
A combination of familial guilt and financial necessity lead Belinda and Norman to invite Solange to live with them. But when Belinda stands her ground and refuses to let her mother-in-law control her household, Solange doesn’t take too kindly to her new living arrangement.
In fact, she seems to decide to make Belinda’s life a living hell.
The Front Room is tense in a deeply mundane way. While there’s an element of the supernatural or otherworldly at play here, most of the horror remains much more grounded. In a word, this movie is STRESSFUL. Poor Belinda is constantly hanging on by a thread, trying to prepare for and then care for her newborn baby, while also managing and caring for Solange.
And Solange proves an absolute nightmare of a house guest. Truly, she embodies every single terrible trait you could imagine a mother-in-law to have. She critiques the way Belinda cooks and keeps house; she belittles Norman; she wields God and religion like a weapon. She’s not only a Daughters of the Confederacy, certificate-holding racist, she’s the kind of racist who acts like she’s unfathomably hurt you’d ever call her that. She keeps hanging crosses everywhere and replacing all their furniture and mispronouncing Belinda’s name. And just when you think Solange can’t get any worse, she starts literally smearing her own feces on the walls.
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Hunter delivers an incredible, scene-stealing performance in this film. I mean, talk about love-to-hate! The Front Room works because Solange invokes such a powerful, visceral reaction from the audience. When you hear her incoming — and the movie has a few clever sound shortcuts to let you know Solange is up to something — you get hit with a wave of anticipatory dread. What now? you’ll think desperately, much like Belinda herself.
My biggest complaint about The Front Room is that the events and tensions build so perfectly as the movie progresses… and then things come to an abrupt end. It feels like everything escalates and then disappears. You’re riding a big roller coaster and instead of plunging downward when you get to the top of the hill, the ride plateaus and tells you to get off.
I know the film does this to make its final twist possible; and for the record, I liked that part of the ending. But The Front Room did such a good job winding me up to start, it was kind of a bummer when it lost its momentum right at the end when I expected the biggest thrills.
Still, while I wanted a bigger, more impactful ending, there’s no doubt The Front Room captured my attention from start to finish. At times campy, at others darkly comedic, it definitely understood how to maximize the potential of its antagonist. No one who watches this movie will ever forget Solange and the thumping harbingers of her imminent arrival.
The Front Room is now playing in theaters.