The Deep House

Ein vielversprechendes Upgrade des gruseligen Hauses mit seinen Ecken, Requisiten und Geheimnissen, das unter Wasser liegt, wo es von einem Taucherpaar erkundet wird. Mit ähnlichen Szenen wie in den Landvarianten des Themas, nur zusätzlich mit einer Unterwasser-Drohne mit Kamera und abnehmendem Sauerstoff. Die Heikelkeit der Filmidee, wenn man lange darüber nachdenkt „Was könnte sie wohl unter Wasser bedrohen, wenn es hier keine Fantasy-Monster gibt? Ein Wassermann?“, übertrumpfen die Autoren nicht mit Einfallsreichtum. Und je mehr sie versuchen, Angst zu erzeugen, desto mehr ist ihr Werk zum Schmunzeln. Ein dummes Verhalten der Figuren, eine krampfhafte Szenenfolge, nicht funktionierende Schreckmomente. Dabei waren die Dreharbeiten bestimmt sehr anstrengend… (01.03.2024)

What makes The Deep House one of the better films of the duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury is the good idea consisting mainly in the choice of location. Two divers going through a haunted flooded house is something that can be really atmospheric, scary and thrilling... at least when they aren't talking. When they speak, it is rather lame, quite possibly because the version available online is predominantly in English, and the audio comes across as emotionless dubbing or a sloppy post-synchronisation, which is a pretty big problem in a film where the heroes are in a wetsuit 90% of the time, and the voices make 99% of the acting impression, making it basically impossible for me to get scared along with them. Afterwards, I checked that the trailer was in French, so hopefully an "original" version will appear some day (although one of the two main characters in the film is British, so the language combination in the available copy makes sense plot-wise). Otherwise, the script doesn't make much sense to comment on, it's completely useless, something we’re already used to with these filmmakers. The Deep House is supposed to be a kind of underwater haunted funfair, and as such it works well, except for the voice acting. (25.10.2021)

The Bustillo and Maury's do it again! When they made their debut Inside fifteen years ago, they awakened in me the hidden dark essence of evil, not only did they make me love and intensely watch horror movies, but they also awakened in me a taste for gore, for extremes and for crossing boundaries. Although their subsequent films were not as winning as the first one (though I still rank Livid, Among the Living and Leatherface as better than average), they are directors who are not dedicated to any other genre, they have been sticking to horror for fifteen years, so their new release, Deep House, was highly anticipated, but damn, I didn't expect that there would be a repeat of happened fifteen years ago to happen! This year unofficially marks the start of the new French Wave, after Meander, the French strike again and Deep House is the most effective horror since The Conjuring 2! Amazing work. I was scared, I wasn't breathing, I was sweating, I was in insane awe of every other scare, and I immediately rank Deep House as one of the hot contenders for Horror Film of the Year. Deep House has everything a proper horror film should have and in a wonderfully generous running time of 80 minutes! There's only a 20 minute introduction and you're immediately in for an hour of intense and atmospheric scares of the highest quality. It has an original premise in the form of an underwater haunted house (suddenly originality goes by the wayside for some), and it’s also found footage and survival, so the film is original in three sub-genres at once. No one has ever done that. Furthermore, the film has two likeable protagonists that the viewer really cares about. There is one interesting twist, top notch cinematography, visuals and music, and the scares are damn uncomfortable – one would think what the hell more could anyone possibly want and have the audacity to want more! An one-hour long heart attack that really made me feel sick and my hair bristled almost nonstop. The actors and the script play a completely minor role here and anyone who after 100 years hasn't got it by now, please switch to a different genre and direction, horror It's not for you. The only thing I kind of missed is proper gore, but I'll forgive anything for such an awesome haunting. Deep House has hit the ground running. Now we just have to wait for The Sadness. Story 3/5, Action 3/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 5/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 5/5, Suspense 5/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 4/5. 8.5/10. (27.10.2021)

Im Grunde genommen nur standardmäßiger Unsinn, der nur und ausschließlich auf der Idee beruht, ein altes Haus anzuzünden und zwei Taucher hineinzuschicken, die sich unter dem Bett vor Wassergeistern verstecken werden. Bustillo und Maury haben in den hiesigen tiefen Gewässern ihre scharf geschliffenen Nüsse verloren und versuchen diesmal, die beengte Umgebung, die Dunkelheit und die POV-Kameras zu erschrecken. Dank dieser Kombination ist es jedoch kein Wunder, dass man manchmal wirklich Scheiße sieht. Dazu kommt ein Paar, das jegliche Sympathie vermissen lässt und selbst schuld ist, in diese Scheiße geraten zu sein ("Ich weiß, Schatz, wir haben noch eine halbe Stunde Sauerstoff, aber schau dir den versiegelten Keller an! Was ist, wenn wir ihn gründlich durchsuchen? Vielleicht finden wir eine Leiche dort...") Auf der anderen Seite, wenn man tiefe Gewässer nicht mag, an Klaustrophobie leiden und glückliche Enden lieben, hat man eine gute Chance, am Ende etwas Angst zu haben. (05.11.2021)

Herzlichen Glückwunsch an das Regieduo Alexandre Bustillo und Julien Maury - mit solch einem großartigen und tragfähigen Horror-Thema ausgestattet zu sein und es so effektiv mit einem wahnsinnigen und hilflosen Drehbuch zu töten, erfordert fast ein Paar echter Meister! (03.11.2021)