Intensity: 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Izzy Lee
Written by Steve Johanson and Izzy Lee
In a slightly dystopian future, Mia Sheldon finds herself imprisoned at home for the crime of having a miscarriage. She has been acquitted of her husband’s death, which was ruled a suicide. What opens as a promising premise slides into the overly familiar. Unfortunately, the film dodges what could have been a fascinating sociological critique. House of Ashes contains some humorous and chilling moments, but overall, the film fell a little flat.
Izzy Lee is a rising star in horror directing circles. Her terrific comedic horror short Meat Friend tore up the festival circuit and established Lee as one to watch. Her feature film, House of Ashes, debuted and showcased some of her skills. It also suggests areas where she needs to improve. From the outset, Mia’s plight is established. This is clearly an unjust overreach of social justice gone wrong. It’s a great premise worth pursuing.
Instead, the story follows a more conventional track. Rather than describing what could have been a searing indictment of reproductive rights and the overbearing infringement of civil liberties, perhaps using the psychological PTSD of losing a child, the movie follows the path of the husband’s suicide. It’s a premise that will be very familiar, and the results are a mixed bag. Compared to what it could have been, the miscarriage story thread would have been new, dystopian, and a more interesting subject. It was right there for the taking.
House of Ashes took the blue pill. (A Matrix Reference… if you know, you know.)
The titular ashes are her husband Adam’s remains, but he remains in the house to try to communicate with Mia. Ghosts do what they gotta do. The truth will eventually come to light, but most astute audience members will be able to identify the twist well before Mia does.
The Cast of House of Ashes
- Fayna Sanchez plays Mia Sheldon, a veterinarian serving time for house arrest for having a miscarriage. Her husband died of an apparent suicide, and though she is found innocent of murder, being confined in the house where he died haunts her.
- Vincent Stalba plays Marc Winters, an old childhood friend of Mia’s who has volunteered to care for Mia during her incarceration. He is a nervous and twitchy man, driven to do all he can to assist Mia.
- Lee Boxleitner plays Officer Davis, a hulking man assigned as Mia’s probation officer. He is unsympathetic to Mia’s situation.
- Mason Conrad plays Adam Sheldon, Mia’s former husband, who we see in flashbacks. He was also a veterinarian.
- Laura Dromerick plays Lexi ShokToks, a nosy pseudo-journalist who intrudes on Mia’s home, seeking juicy comments.
A Short Summary of House of Ashes:
We join the cast at Mia’s house, a lovely hillside home that’s not a bad place to serve time. Too bad it’s HAUNTED. Officer Davis places an ankle tracking device on Mia and sternly warns her to stay put. He will be checking in on her, and he gets in a few pointed barbs at Mia’s “crime”. Marc ardently defends Mia, but he is a slight man of meek disposition, and Officer Davis is a powerful brute. After receiving more warnings and instructions, Davis departs, leaving Mia and Marc to begin Mia’s confinement.
Mia initially struggles with her imprisonment. Marc has moved in to take care of errands that Mia needs, and an uneasy tension has developed with their old friends. Marc was previously the odd man out with Mia, having been friend-zoned in favor of Adam. Now, with Adam gone, he has an opportunity to build a closer relationship with Mia. Unfortunately for Marc, Mia is still in PTSD, and is still on an emotional razor’s edge. She appreciates his efforts, but it’s clear that she isn’t as into him as he is into her. He’s patient, though, and tries his best to adopt a nurturing approach.
Meanwhile, Adam’s ghost gets busy. Marc’s wallet and keys go missing. Whispers wake Mia from her sleep. Knocks are heard at the door, but there’s nobody there. Apparitions show up at the window—conventional ghostly mischief. Marc tricks Mia into getting high on gummies, and during their psychedelic trip, Adam’s ashes urn pops open. When Marc goes to investigate, the urn flies and smashes against the back of his head, filling the house full of Adam’s ashes. Marc blames Mia for attacking him, but both are stoned out of their minds and neither of them has a firm grasp of reality.
Is this the ghost of Adam acting out in jealousy? Is he lashing out due to lingering regrets? Does Adam seek revenge? Mia, Marc, and Adam all slide into erratic behaviors. A reckoning is coming.
Evaluation of House of Ashes
There is a skeleton of a good story here, but the more interesting potential plot is merely a prop for the investigation of a conventional ghost story. The real story should have been about the horror of being sentenced for a non-crime, an oppressive system that punishes women on top of the tragic accident that is a miscarriage. Had Izzy Lee decided to make this about being penalized for having an abortion, it would have been more on point. Pregnancy horror can be a powerful trope, but the miscarriage becomes forgotten in this story.
House of Ashes is essentially a two-hander. A movie that deals with two people and their relationship. For a film that relies heavily on dialogue, the conversations often feel staged and somewhat awkward. It is also alarming that Mia has no one else to reach out to. As friends go, Marc is pretty creepy. He is a walking totem of red flag energy. Even without the dramatic irony of seeing Marc behaving manic and sinister out of Mia’s view, you never sense that they have ever been in a healthy relationship. He is clingy and full of nervous energy. I am also not convinced of Mia’s emotional state. She’s miserable, but the weight of her situation should be pervasive, but it’s not.
As a result, the movie never moves out of second gear. The big dramatic twist feels more like an “I told you so” moment for the audience. There is a bit of misdirection as to who the villain is in the film, whether it be the Officer, Marc, or the ghost of Adam. Ultimately, the resolution feels… OK. It works, but it isn’t particularly emotionally compelling. The underlying truth is delivered through flashbacks rather than being revealed more naturally through the plot.
Concluding Thoughts
Fayna Sanchez does a decent job with her portrayal of Mia, but the movie never lets you truly root for her. She’s a bit of a sad sack, and we don’t get to experience the real trauma of both the death of Adam, and we only get a minute or so of her ordeal with the miscarriage. I would have liked to have seen the trial, and perhaps why she and Marc were close enough to allow another man to move in immediately after the death of her husband. Instead, we are delivered this information through a two-minute prologue and local TV news reports.
Izzy Lee filmed a good-looking movie. Her embrace of the Argento color palette frames the film nicely. The story is easy to comprehend, but if you only have two characters in the movie, it is imperative that you care about what these two people are going through. As a horror fan, I also wanted the emotional stakes amplified. Lee is an experienced horror short maker, and her debut plays like a stretched-out short. It feels like we entered act two of a three-story arc, and we rushed past act one via the prologue. In future films, I hope that she builds the context of the scenario.
House of Ashes isn’t a bad film. The ghost story beats are solid. It is a lost opportunity, though. The Portland Horror Film Festival loves to reward its alumni short directors when they get their feature films released, which I applaud. Not quite there yet, and this is one of those indie festival films that leaves you with more shrugs than thrills. Effectively, this is a PG-13 movie, with some drug use and violence, but nothing unsuitable for teenagers.
Review By Eric Li
