If You Love ‘The Night House,’ Watch This Psychological Thriller Miniseries

The big picture

• The House of the Night
  i
  The girl from before
  explore grief through unique scenarios that act as symbolic manifestations of emotional confusion.
• Red flags and red herrings create suspense in both plots, with
  The House of the Night
  is Owen and
  The girl from before
  Edward keeps viewers on edge with unexpected twists.
• The girl from before
  expands its focus on femininity, highlighting the injustice and trauma women suffer through a deeply emotional narrative.

Many successful horror films probe the darkest depths of the human psyche through ominous symbolic manifestations. Through winding corridors and a malevolent spirit, The House of the Night is a meditation on grief while delivering a visually stunning piece that keeps our nerves frayed. Using a uniquely designed home to explore pain is a concept that The House of the Night shares with a BBC psychological thriller miniseries Max, The girl from before. Adaptation of a novel of the same name by JP Delaney, The girl from before takes a neo-noir approach and houses a captivating cast to showcase two distinctive journeys of pain and healing that are inextricably intertwined. The scope of the series goes further The House of the Nightthe woman's personal journey, as it also delves into the unity found in women. If you are looking for more deliberately filmed and delicately twisted version of horror which still offers the same unsettling feeling, The girl from before it is absolutely essential.

What is 'The Girl Before' about?

Operating on a dual timeline, the present day of The girl from before follow jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who moves into an ultra-minimalist house designed by the elusive architect Edward Monkford (David Oyelowo). After a mentally intensive and emotionally invasive quiz, she is selected as a resident of One Folgate Street, as long as she abides by the strict minimalist rules of the house. These rules include a ban on children, pets, decorations, books and, most importantly, clutter, which is enforced through regular inspections and the house's automated system that collects information about the resident (but obviously “nothing but Google or Facebook do not”. know”). The tenant is not only aiming for a minimalist home but also a minimalist lifestyle.

We find out more about the residence next to Jane, who discovers that the house has not been occupied for the past three years, which brings us back to the timeline of yesteryear. Here, we follow Emma (Jessica Plummer) and her husband, Simon (Ben Hardy), a messier, partying couple who somehow fit Edward's criteria as tenants of the house. The only things Jane and Emma have in common are their eerily similar looks and their traumatic pastsenduring the pain of giving birth to a stillborn child and being sexually assaulted during a robbery, respectively.

Through Jane's more inquisitive nature, we learn that Edward had not lived there himself because his wife and child were crushed by a collapsing wall during the construction of the house, a woman who also shared similar features to the two women. As each timeline progresses, the minimalist house acts as a medium between the two women, as their destinies intertwine despite their distinctive journeys. Although they never meet, due to Emma's untimely death, Jane takes on the role of an amateur detective to bring justice to Emma while healing both her trauma and her own.

'The Night House' and 'The Girl Before' feature unique environments

The House of the Night uses confusing architecture, a secondary house of mirror images, and optical illusions using pillars and cornices to convey Beth's (Rebecca Hall) harrowing investigation into her husband while also thematically illustrating the emotional turmoil of losing a loved one. The features of the house and her husband's scribbles on the plans are very reminiscent of the story behind the actual Winchester Mystery house. It was theorized that Sarah Winchester she designed a house that contained doors that opened into walls or immense gaps, stairs that led to the roof, and narrow, twisting corridors, in order to distract the spirits that were tormenting her, just as the husband of the Beth. The girl from before takes a drastically different approach to emphasizing the tumult of griefbasically contrasting it with a bare-bones, open-plan house with little or no room to hide from your own thoughts.

This stark contrast between the minimalist architecture of the house and the tempestuous nature of grief that permeated the residents also lends itself to the social experiment that Edward was apparently conducting. Through his strict selection process, he manages to choose two tenants who are still navigating life in the wake of trauma. As such, it is almost as if I am investigating whether a The minimalist lifestyle could “clutter” a grieving person's mind. Having experienced trauma himself, through the death of his wife and son, he is personally invested in this unique experiment, explaining the almost scientific approach he takes to the tenants: interviews, control variables, frequent observation and constant feedback.

Unlike the house inside The House of the Night, The girl from beforeThe house's minimalist home is cold and calculating and even confrontational black mirror territory With bare concrete walls, tall windows and flagstone stairs with no railing (which is always a bad idea, as will be confirmed later), the house evokes connotations of a cage in the home of a lab rat or a criminal in a interrogation room As such, this amplifies the trauma of the residents as it echoes through the unforgiving space, however, ironically it is also indirectly cured by the house.

'The Night House' and 'The Girl Before' love men with red flags

As events unfold in both The House of the Night i The girl from before, red flags and red herrings pile on top of each other in a way that's strangely not frustrating. Both Owen (Evan Jonigkeit), Beth's late husband, and Edward ready to be revealed as the show's antagonists, they are not yet. Beth discovers that Owen had been involved in the extracurricular activity of stalking and murdering women who share physical similarities with her and brutally wrapping them under the floorboards of the mirror image house. This had started with strange pictures on his phone that subtly hinted that he was cheating on her, then an entire folder full of pictures and later, disturbing witness accounts of his actions until he was exposed.

Likewise, Edward harbors closely guarded secrets and is subtly painted as malevolent. Starting strong with his incredibly particular expectations of how his tenants would live, Edward immediately seemed discouraged. This adds to his overly professional and direct personality, especially when he asks Emma and Jane around, like he's in business. The creepiness is topped off by his very specific type of women, a trait he seems to share with Owen. It's also worth noting that two of the three women he's dating now are dead. Between his constant presence and obsessive behavior, it seems inconceivable that the antagonist is not him. But sometimes, an obsessive, stalking man is just that, and not a murderer. Edward's character may be a red herring, but there's something compelling about Oyelowo's performance that makes Red Flags a delightfully fun watch to squint at.

'The Girl Before' extends its scope to femininity

While both pieces explore themes of life after trauma, The House of the Night focuses on Beth's personal journey, while The girl from before expands its context to femininity in the resolution. As mentioned before, the cold minimalist house increases their pain, but they can heal through their connection to each other through the soulless house itself. Since Emma's healing is actually done posthumously and arguably isn't really considered “healing,” she's finally getting the justice she deserves. Later in the miniseries, we find out that Emma had been sexually assaulted, but not during the robbery or burglary, causing the whole case to be thrown out. However, the officer in charge had neglected to do his homework properly and act sensitively around the issue. He had been trying to convict the thief for years, and as such, Emma's accusation under duress became the golden ticket he needed. So when the truth was exposed, instead of acting with sensitivity or empathy, he threw it away.

The lack of humanity around how Emma is treated, along with Plummer's poignant performance where she perfectly balances the pain and shame that women often experience after being sexually assaulted. it reflects how the justice system often fails women. Similarly, Jane learns of the misconduct of the hospital staff during her hospital care when she was pregnant with her stillborn child. Even after being called out, they stand their ground and ignore the emotional toll their decisions have taken on Jane. Both women are failed by the men in their lives. From men in uniform to their trusted lovers, these two women are constantly suffocated by inappropriate behavior or even violence.

As such, Jane's determination to investigate and ultimately find out the circumstances surrounding Emma's death leads to a sense of camaraderie between them. Through this journey, Jane is also able to overcome her own trauma and is able to heal in the final moments. Expanding the scope of the series from a personal journey of grief to the collective female experience, The girl from before offers a simple yet provocative ending. Both of us The House of the Night i The girl from before they are uniquely powerful meditations on griefbut if you love the delicacy and thoughtfulness of the neo-noir genre and crave the empowerment of femininity, the miniseries is worth watching.

The girl from before is available to stream now on Max in the US

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