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Open House
Movie

Open House

2014 • Unknown

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

After a family moves into an Old Victorian house they discover a chest in the attic containing items that belonged to the people who used to live there. With the discovery of the chest comes a chain of terrifying occurrences.

Overall Series Review

The film centers on a widower, John, and his three children who move into a large Victorian home to start a new life following the death of the mother. Their fresh start is immediately undermined by the discovery of a chest in the attic containing cursed artifacts, which were used in a disastrous 1891 séance that resulted in multiple murders. The malevolent spirit quickly begins to possess the children and turn them against their father. The narrative is driven by familiar haunted house tropes, focusing on the danger lurking in the domestic space and the struggle of the family patriarch to protect his children from an unseen evil.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The narrative is centered entirely on a supernatural haunting and a family grieving the loss of the mother. Character definition is based on their role in the family unit (widower, teenage daughter, younger children) and their vulnerability to a demonic curse. Race or immutable characteristics are not a factor in the conflict, and the film does not engage in political lecturing on privilege or systemic oppression.

Oikophobia7/10

The film utilizes the classic horror trope of the 'tainted home' where the new life of the family is immediately poisoned by the dark history of the old Victorian house. The domestic sphere, a traditional Western institution, is shown to be fundamentally corrupt and a site of chaos and murder. The ancestral past is explicitly demonic, serving only to harm the present-day inhabitants who attempt to settle in the structure.

Feminism5/10

The father figure is depicted as inept, emotionally distant, or comically oblivious to the clear supernatural threat unfolding in his home. His role as the family's protector and head of household is constantly subverted, leading to the ultimate corruption and destruction of the unit, culminating in the possessed children turning on him. While there is no 'Girl Boss' figure, the masculinity in the film is presented as a bumbling, failed form of protection.

LGBTQ+1/10

The story strictly adheres to the horror of a traditional, if broken, nuclear family unit. All sexual identity and gender ideology issues are completely absent from the plot, which focuses on the family's grief and the demonic possession of the children. The narrative offers no commentary or attention to alternative sexualities or the deconstruction of the nuclear family.

Anti-Theism4/10

The supernatural horror is rooted in a demonic possession resulting from an occult séance, acknowledging a destructive transcendent evil force. The film does not feature any characters or themes related to organized traditional religion, either as a source of good or evil. A moral vacuum is present as the supernatural force goes completely unopposed by any force of faith or objective good, leading to a purely nihilistic conclusion.