KEVIN BACON "BRINGS HOME THE BACON" IN THE OTHERWISE MIXED YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT
"What is this place?" Why it's a house, a sort of weirdly constructed labyrinth that only the strangest of architects could come up with. In You Should Have Left (my latest review), said house is the star and its maze-like corridors are like taxing nooks and crannies.
Anyway "Left" bills itself as a horror film (just watch the trailer) but it's probably more of a "mind violence" spectacle with a couple of jump scares and some analogous shadows. Is it "keep you up at night" scary? No not really. Does it get points for being somewhat original? Sure it does. Except for hinting a little bit towards 1980's The Shining, You Should Have Left is its own modern entity.
So yeah, as something about a family who rents a Wales vacation home only to find out that the place is haunted and somewhat barren, "Left" builds slowly only to deflate and produce a lukewarm payoff. The performances are good though especially Kevin Bacon who layers up to play damaged banker and rattled husband, Theo Conroy. Amanda Seyfried plays Bacon's young wife Susanna (28 years younger actually) and Avery Essex plays Bacon's 9-year-old daughter Ella (Essex is more than adequate in the child acting department).
The best moments in You Should Have Left actually don't involve the creepy. They involve the fiddly interplay between Bacon, Seyfried, and Essex. "Left" thinks it's a terror fest that sends your knees knocking but it's more a broken down drama about a household that probably didn't need to be formed in the first place. Director David Koepp who worked before with Bacon in the terrifying Stir of Echoes, adds a ghostly jolt or two to accompany the psychological swipe. The result is numbing, entailing, and refreshingly off-kilter. Basically You Should Have Left "should" provide you with a decent rental. Rating: 2 and a half stars.
Written by Jesse Burleson
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