🍿#18: The Night House
An awesome prize giveaway plus your dose of movie news, trailers and trivia.
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
~ Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, 1971
So much to read, so little time
There’s a lot to get through this week, so let’s crack on. Firstly, Salty Popcorn has been picked out among the many thousands of Substack newsletters to be featured on Substack’s Home & Discover pages - and I have you, my dear readers, to thank. Without you, SP wouldn’t have come this far.
As a result of being featured, there’s been a flurry of new subscribers and I must say you’ve chosen a very good week to sign up…
But first, I have some bad news. Despite my promise to send the Stillwater review separately following the last issue of Salty Popcorn, I haven’t managed to watch it. By the time I could stop isolating, the only showings were at awkward times.
To make up for breaking my promise, I’m running a competition!
WIN!
3 months of either Mubi or Netflix.
How to Enter
All you have to do is refer SP to your friends. For each friend that signs up, you’ll get 1 entry to the prize draw. BUT, if you’re a Premium Subscriber, you’ll get DOUBLE ENTRIES!
This means 1 friend = 2 entries / 5 friends = 10 entries.
HINT: You could pay £5 this month just for the sake of doubling your entries. If you win, it could be the best fiver you’ve ever spent! 🤑🤑🤑🤑
Simply sign up for the referral programme and send your unique URL to your friends and family. It’s that simple.
How to get friends to sign up?
Share this edition of SP and tell them how awesome it is!
Share an older issue of SP that you think they’ll love… e.g. If they like international cinema, send Another Round. If they were disappointed by M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, send them Old.
Tell them about this competition - they can take part too!
T&Cs
The competition will close at midnight on 7th September. The winner will then be drawn at random and announced in the next issue of Salty Popcorn on 9th September.
Good luck!
Now for the headlines:
Earlier this week, the trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man: Now Way Home leaked. Despite the terrible quality of the leak, fans went crazy and Sony tried to cover it up but eventually conceded and ended up releasing the trailer as it should be seen. Watch it here.
Warner Bros. has confirmed a remake of The Witches of Eastwick is underway. Read more.
Jake Gyllenhall is set to star in an adaptation of the graphic novel, Oblivion Song. Read more.
The upcoming sequel for The Matrix gets an official title… The Matrix Resurrections. Of the two Wachowski sisters, only Lana Wachowski is returning to direct. Read more.
Upcoming Releases
Mayday
UK: 27 August // USA: 18 September 2020
Hotel worker Ana (Grace Van Patten) finds herself transported to another world where a war is raging and a group of young women use radio transmissions to lure men to their deaths. Ana soon realises, however, that she’s not the killer they want her to be.
The Duke
UK: 3 September // USA: 17 September
Based on the true story of Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent) who stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London, which was the only theft in the gallery’s history.
To me, this looks like the kind of light-hearted film you’d want to watch on a rainy bank holiday.
Reservation Dogs
UK: TBC // USA: 9 August
A bonus trailer this week, this one is for a TV series - but it does look very funny. Produced by Taika Waititi, Reservation Dogs follows four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma that steal and save in hope of moving to California.
This is already streaming in the US on Hulu, and will be coming to the UK on Star (Disney+) soon…
Fact of the week
To commemorate the highly anticipated sequel to The Matrix finally getting a full title, it feels only fitting to tell you where the mysterious green code comes from. Those strange symbols are all from sushi cookbooks scanned by the film’s production designer, Simon Whiteley.
Review: The Night House
Star rating:
3.5 (out of 5)
Worth a watch?
Yes
Where to watch:
USA: Only in cinemas
UK: Only in cinemas
Runtime:
1hr 47m
Director:
David Bruckner (The Ritual and the upcoming Hellraiser reboot)
Blurb:
After her husband’s suicide, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left to mourn in the house he built for her. Despite how hard she tries to keep it together, her dreams tear her apart…
The review (NO spoilers):
The Night House is a clever and gripping psychological thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. I say thriller, but it’s definitely closer to being a horror and having watched the trailer again, it still sent a shiver down my spine.
For the most part, I’d say that it’s Rebecca Hall’s performance that makes this film stand out. She does a great job of balancing the grief and confusion of a woman that has lost her husband while carrying the resolve of someone looking for answers.
There are plenty of effective—and I daresay clever—jump-scares that will likely shake even veteran horror fans. However, what the film does best is build tension, which is something that director David Bruckner draws out for an almost excruciatingly long time.
While it often feels like the film is trying to be something more than what it is, especially towards the end, it still stands on solid ground. At the end of the day, it’s much better than many horrors I’ve seen and is well worth a watch if you fancy a fright.
Scroll down for the critic’s cut and what’s coming in the next issue.
If you liked The Night House…
Hereditary
2018 | UK: Netflix // US: Fubo
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter and grandchildren begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry, as they try to outrun the sinister fate they have inherited.
This film is not for the faint-hearted… I vividly remember watching this in Greenwich Picturehouse and I was literally on the edge of my seat. It’s one of the scariest horrors I’ve ever seen.
In the next issue:
The Nest
UK: 30 July // USA: 30 July | Watch the Trailer
The Critic’s Cut 🚨SPOILER ALERT🚨:
I all that wasn’t convinced by the supernatural ending in The Night House. In some ways, it paid off but in others, it didn’t. If it wasn’t for the strength of acts one & two and Rebecca Hall’s performance, the ambitious twist could have jeopardised the whole film. While it may have been hanging on by a thread, it held on nonetheless.
Do you know someone who’d like a taste of Salty Popcorn? Feel free to send this issue on.