David Bruckner has been quietly becoming the horror director to watch ever since he burst onto the scene as a short film director, turning in incredibly memorable segments in The Signal and V/H/S. But it was 2017’s The Ritual that catapulted him into the hearts of horror fans with its mix of world-building, supernatural mystique and dissection of male friendship. Helped along by some fantastic creature designs, it quickly became one of the best horror films released that year.

Now, working with the talent behind Super Dark Times, he’s back with The Night House, a film that trades the endless forests of Sweden for the seemingly endless horrors of a stunning house. And while it doesn’t hit the epic highs of Ritual or the darkness of Super Dark Times, it’s anchored in a powerhouse lead performance and filled with an ominous sense of creeping dread.

But it's the house you’ll notice first. It’s lovingly crafted, though empty when it’s introduced. Situated by a cliff overlooking a lake, a set of wooden stairs leads to a dock where a small boat is tied up, banging quietly against the wooden boards. Outside the doors of the house, a woman tells Beth (Rebecca Hall) how sorry she is and that she’s there if she needs her, shoveling a casserole into Beth’s hands with a “take care, sweetheart.” Ben Lovett’s score unsettles in the background, droning like bees until...silence:

She dumps the food into the trash.

In the hands of Rebecca Hall, Beth is a confused widow barely holding it together and wondering why her husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit) killed himself. She imbues the character with acidic grief to the point where people don’t quite know how to take her. In one of the most acerbically funny sequences, a parent of one of Beth’s students stops by the office where Beth is looking up handguns on the internet to inquire why her son received a “C” in Speech. After her explanation that she had personal issues falls on deaf ears, Beth looks at the parent and deadpans that her husband “...took a boat out on the lake, with a handgun I didn’t know we owned, and...pow.” Later, over drinks with her friend Claire (Sarah Goldberg) and some fellow teachers, Beth unsettles them with her apathetic discussion of a nebulous note he left behind while asking if they believe in ghosts.

You see, ever since his death, Beth has been sleepwalking and seeing things, like a man-shaped shadow in a window that fades into the architecture when she moves just right. But her demons are also figurative, as she’s coming to the realization that Owen had secrets. A picture in his phone of a woman who looks suspiciously like Beth, for instance. As she digs into the situation behind her husband’s suicide, she learns of another house, deep in the woods and a mystery that threatens her from beyond the grave.

David Bruckner directs the hell out of The Night House and pulls a fantastic performance from Rebecca Hall. Coupled with inventive cinematography by Elisha Christian, the film has a fantastic sense of place, even as the dimensions and parameters of the house get shifted and played with. Screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski have created a complex and sometimes likeably unlikable character in Beth. The dialogue, meanwhile, is sharp and caustically funny at times. The script creates a strong foundation that Rebecca Hall just runs with, adding a deadpan sensibility to the character.

After a fantastic introduction, the story unfortunately follows along with predictable ghost story investigation beats, as Beth digs into some ritualistic exposition involving Welsh mazes called Caerdroia while simultaneously digging into her husband’s secretive past. While they’ve created a strong character for Rebecca to glom onto, the second act doesn’t quite succeed with building on the themes it introduces and its reliance on ghost story tropes made for a viewing in which I was a few pages ahead of the script and characters. The thematically rich ideas of reverse floor plans and mazes and mirror images isn’t explored as well as the story seems to think it is. But once it gets back to the third act and Beth is finally caught up with the viewer, the use of negative and liminal space coupled with some fantastic camera trickery made me forgive some of the more standard story tropes.

Rebecca Hall, meanwhile, gives the movie her all and it makes it seem natural when she’s filmed making out with...well, the air. Beth’s desire to understand why her husband did what he did while uncovering unsavory secrets surrounding him and the house elevates the material. A scene in which she confronts a woman she suspects has been sleeping with her husband is a masterclass of internalized rage mixed with grief and she delivers it with a knowing and mean smile. “The matter’s been resolved, I guess. He’s dead”, she tells the woman. “Just in case you had any dates planned.”

The script could have used a bit more goosing in terms of the narrative development regarding the world-building and the supernatural mysteries circling the titular night house. But it’s the assured direction and Rebecca’s fierce performance that make this one to watch.