Horror Movie Review: The Deep House (2021)

Fresh takes on haunted houses/supernatural/ghostly goings-on are few and far between. So much so that any film promising even something mildly different is worth paying attention too. The Deep House knows this and promises you’ve not seen a ghost story like this before.

Unfortunately, it massively oversells itself. Aside from the fact it predominantly takes place under water, it is your bog-standard ghostly horror with jump-scares a-plenty. Does that make it a bad movie? Absolutely not, as its location is one of the most atmospheric seen this year.

Written and directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. The film stars James Jagger and Camille Rowe as a couple (Ben & Tina) who enjoy seeking out haunted locations and filming the experience for their YouTube audience.

The pair travel to the South of France where Ben believes he can get a million views if they find a supposed sanatorium that is submerged in a secluded artificial lake. The plan is to dive down, film the exploration of the sanatorium and watch the money come in. Anyone who knows YouTube knows he might be dreaming a bit here.

Something Tina is aware of as she just wants to relax and have a holiday. She is in luck though, as their plans are thrown into disarray when they arrive at the ‘secluded’ lake to find it over-run with tourists. Disappointed, Ben agrees to forget the plan and just spend the day relaxing. That is until he meets a local man named Pierre who offers to take them to an isolated branch of the lake in the forest of Chanteloup. In there is an actual secluded lake. Created when the area was artificially submerged in 1984.

Pierre claims that at the bottom of the lake is a mansion. One that has remained perfectly preserved. Of course, Ben jumps at the chance and Tina recently agrees to go. However, Pierre’s odd behaviour disturbs her.

Diving into the lake, the pair discover a sprawling mansion and find their way in via an upstairs window. Inside, the house looks frozen in time and as they explore, they uncover more and more detail about the owners.

Detail that suggests bad things happened here. Confirmed when arriving at the front door, they discover scratch marks as though someone was desperately trying to get out. This places houses evil, Ben & Tina have disturbed it and now, it isn’t going to let them leave.

The Deep House is at its best in the first half. Pre-spooky shenanigans where everything is left up to your imagination and the atmosphere of the underwater mansion is strong. The initial set-up is solid, if not familiar but once we go under the water with the couple, things get really good.

Absolute credit to the filmmakers here, The Deep House is shot wonderfully and the restrictions of being underwater seem to have not have hampered them at all. Different camera techniques allow us to be really immersed in the exploration. So much so, that at times, you can’t help but wonder what it might be like if it was in VR.

The slow, exploration of the house is fascinating as there is so much mystery around it. The couple’s discoveries are our discoveries and while the spooky shenanigans are coming, it takes its time.

Unfortunately, when all of that does kick in, the film takes a bit of a nose-dive as it settles into standard haunted house behaviour. Even the sense of mystery disappears as one character gets possessed and proceeds to explain the entire backstory of the house and its occupants.

Which would be fine if the dialogue was said with much conviction. This section of the movie is just outright bad. The direction clearly being for the character to speak in a monotone voice to portray possession but the end result coming across bored.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the backstory is just so humdrum and just leaves so many questions unanswered. It’s a real shame as The Deep House has such promise at first. Ultimately, it’s a missed opportunity. By slipping into familiar and well-trodden territory, it loses its tension and impact, even if the air running out aspect should heighten things.

It’s a perfectly fine haunted house horror movie. Which, these days, is better than most. It could have been so much better though.