The Beach House (2019 film)

Did You Know?

• The film's score was composed by British electronic musician Roly Porter, known for his work with the dubstep duo Vex'd.
• Shudder acquired the distribution rights to the film in October 2019.
• The film was screened at the Sitges Film Festival in October 2019.

Plot

Emily and Randall arrive at Randall's parents' beach house in a remote vacation town, finding the town deserted. After having sex and a small disagreement, they discover another couple, Mitch and Jane Turner, already staying there. Jane is terminally ill, and Mitch hopes to give her one last happy vacation. Both couples decide to stay.

During dinner, Randall eats a local oyster while Emily refuses. Later, they all share edible marijuana. While high, Mitch notices strange water texture, and they see glowing microbes covering the beach and trees. Jane approaches but begins coughing and becomes disoriented as fog forms.

Emily also becomes disoriented and passes out. She awakens to Jane vomiting and goes to sleep. The next day, Emily finds Jane catatonic in the kitchen with skin lesions and Mitch missing. Randall and Emily go to the beach, which is empty.

Randall becomes sick and sees water forming strange patterns. Mitch appears, muses that something feels off, then drowns himself. Emily steps on a Portuguese man o' war, sees a worm-like creature in the wound, and removes it. She finds Randall sick and pursued by Jane, who has milky eyes and fluid leaking from her mouth. They lock Jane in the house and escape into the thickening fog.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating based on reviews, with an average rating. The critics consensus calls it 'an intriguing and unsettling debut' offering 'a delightfully grim getaway.' On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, indicating generally favorable reviews. Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times noted that after a slow start, Brown 'ratchets up the tension efficiently, summoning a mix of gross-out body invasion, eco-mutation and large-scale cosmic dread.'

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars, praising its 'sweaty, shaky camerawork' and tone. Daniel Kurland of Bloody Disgusting called it 'a powerful, emotional throwback to '50s sci-fi' and 'an atmospheric triumph.' Michael Gingold of Rue Morgue wrote that Brown 'elicits a sense of engulfing biological apocalypse.' Variety's Dennis Harvey commended the film's tone and performances, though he found it not sufficiently original. Henry Stewart of Slant Magazine gave the film two out of four stars, criticizing its characterization.