Kevin Bacon stars as a rich dude with a shady past who needs to get away from it all. He gets his much younger actress girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) to book an airbnb in Wales, far away from prying eyes before she goes off to shoot her next movie. Eventually he comes to realize the place has obvious plans for him, or as the creepy storekeeper in town says, “You don’t choose the house. The house chooses you.”
You Should Have Left would’ve probably made a good Twilight Zone episode. At ninety-three minutes, the premise is stretched out awfully thin. In fact, it only starts to pick up steam in the third act, which is too little too late. I mean, slow burn horror flicks can work if the script is strong. This one isn’t bad. It just doesn’t help matters when the first two acts test your patience and the finale is pretty much a foregone conclusion.
The good performances help keep you invested throughout the picture, but honestly, writer-director David Koepp delivers more fizzle than sizzle, especially when it comes to the predictable ending. I’m a huge fan of Bacon and Koepp’s previous collaboration, the unsung classic Stir of Echoes, and I was hoping this would be a reunion to remember. However, the film hews closer to Koepp’s muddled Stephen King adaptation Secret Window in terms of quality. You Should Have Left contains a lot of thematic elements that Koepp already mined rather thoroughly in those aforementioned films, and it’s a shame he couldn’t find something new to say.
The real star is the house. Filled with long ominous hallways, a foreboding atmosphere, and an ever-changing geography, it certainly is one of the more original looking haunted houses in recent horror films. Even though the two leads give solid performances, it’s the house who steals the show. Too bad the lights are on, but no one’s home.
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