“The Front Room” (2024) is a film adaptation of a Susan Hill short story featured in “The Travelling Bag and Other Ghostly Stories.” When singer, songwriter, dancer and model Brandy is not busy reprising her role as Cinderella in Disney+’s “Descendants: The Rise of Red” (2024), she is returning to her horror roots—her feature film debut was in “I Still Know What I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” (1998). She stars as Belinda, a professor who is expecting a baby and renovating the marital home with her husband, Norman Irwin (Andrew Burnap). Is Norman an allusion to “Psycho” (1960). When Norman’s dad dies, she discovers more about Norman’s past. He has a stepmom, Solange Lee Rawlings Irwin (Kathryn Hunter), who seems strange to the two because of the way that she practices Christianity. With less income and expenses rising, Belinda encourages the reluctant Norman to take care of Solange in exchange for inheriting everything, but the deal is more than she bargained for. Will Belinda be able to hold on to her family or will Solange take over? The Eggers Brothers, Max and Sam, make their directorial debut.
If the Eggers’ name sounds familiar, it is! You are thinking of Robert Eggers, the director of “The Witch” (2015), which Sam worked on as a production assistant, “The Lighthouse” (2019), which Max cowrote with Robert, and “The Northman” (2022), Robert’s best film to date. Sam’s prior experience was cowriting, “Olympia” (2018), a documentary about actor Olympia Dukakis, with director Harry Mavromichalis. Other than sharing a last name, there is no discernible cinematic family resemblance, which is not automatically a bad thing, but is also not necessarily a good thing. Their story has good bones, but ultimately the themes fail to transform into a cohesive story.
One theme touches on race and how it plays a role in academia, which was better handled in “Master” (2022) and is not prominent in the previews, but the tension of an interracial couple having to contend with formerly hidden racist family members is prominent in the advertising. The most captivating theme is treating Christian practices such as speaking in tongues, the American, not Biblical, or asking for the Holy Spirit to fill you. If treated like a possession film where Solange is just the flesh suit of a noncorporeal powerful spirit, that movie could have worked. Imagine if the grandmother never died in “Hereditary” (2018), and she was not a demon worshipper. Instead, it gets diluted with Belinda’s area of expertise, the appropriated pagan origins of Christian symbols, which is a real thing. Unfortunately, like Dan Brown, its scholarship is puddle deep, so the Eggers Brothers offers a plethora of undiluted goddess imagery without even a slight primer on each deity’s significance, which neuters the impact of this battle between religious iconographies.
Along those lines, there is a Highlander theme for mothers: there can only be one. Do not expect a reddit post come to life on the big screen. Norman is not a mama’s boy, and Belinda is the one who constantly The Eggers Brothers’ creative choices are strange, and it would have been better for them to follow the classic admonishment, write what you know, by exploring the pain of a man grappling with fear over a wizened elderly woman. How many men are paralyzed with fear over the psychological hold that someone smaller than them hold over them or feel unsupported when they try to talk about abuse. It was a heavier lift for them to convincingly depict a Black woman as a new mother—no allusion to the terror of higher risk of medical mishaps for Black women or glimpse of her having Black family or friends in her life—or an older Southern woman who finds a way to come out on top in a patriarchal society. They are allowed to write whatever they want, but minimizing Belinda’s betrayal of her husband seems like a big misstep in a film that hinges on the strength of their relationship.
The previews hide the fact that “The Front Room” is really a body horror film about a professional woman experiencing the trials of being a part of the Sandwich generation with her biological baby and the equivalent of an elderly one. The real star is Solange, a mother-in-law from hell, and Hunter is game to chew up the scenery as a woman willing to lie, manipulate and weaponize her bodily functions to take over the house, reclaim her stepson and take the baby. While closed captions would be helpful to understand Hunter’s Southern accent, her performance is otherwise flawless. Hunter abandons all vanity and often looks like a baby whether Belinda is bathing Solange or Solange’s head is wrapped in bandages. It is the strongest aspect of the film, but it also feels a bit like a step back so soon after seeing “Thelma” (2024) and finally getting a movie that treats older people with respect. While it is permissible to hate a wicked woman like Solange, the visceral disgust of the practical tribulations of caring for the elderly is valid, but also ableist because everyone will be in those shoes one day. “Relic” (2020) is a horror movie that contends with aging and the effect on caretakers in a more nuanced fashion. Solange’s unforgiveable sin is how repulsive she is. These scenes go on too long after the point is made. It is a missed opportunity to spell out the fact that while all women in families may feel like servants in their own home, the racial implications in this set up is particularly sinister.
Belinda is an oneiric figure who seems to have some discernment or spiritual connection with Solange, which prevents her from siding with her husband or develop immunity against Solange’s manipulation. Before Solange appears, there are several entranced scenes, and Belinda is a sleepwalker. Unfortunately, the Eggers’ direction fails to convey the true meaning of some of these sequences. When she looms over a bathtub filled with viscera, it could be interpreted as her envisioning her womb and trying to visualize her baby. What is the significance of showing us the carpet then linoleum as Belinda and Norman approach to first meet Solange? No idea! The final scene and big reveal may be a lazy way to retroactively tidy up these scenes, but it just does not work. A more effective idea would be to lean into the expressionist horror by using Solange as an infection who gradually changes Belinda from a compassionate, open-minded woman to one who has no problem ignoring a person who may be in distress. The transition is not gradual, but sudden. Instead of the Holy Spirit possessing Solange, Solange converts Belinda into being as callous and single-minded as her to get what she wants.
“The Front Room” is unexpectedly a hilarious film, and not to laugh at, but with. I cackled often and frequently at Solange’s bag of tricks. I really wanted to like “The Front Room,” but ultimately it is a disappointing film. It suffers from uneven pacing, and first-time directors often make their first film as if they will never get to make one again by overstuffing it with every trick in the book. The Eggers’ Brothers are better at coming up with ideas than executing them.
