The verbal jousting and escalating antagonism between Long and Bosworth is frequently hampered by clunky, unconvincing dialogue that never quite gives the narrative the momentum it needs.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 4, 2025

Despite the film being dialogue heavy, this setting and the witty script keep both the tension and rhythm of delivery at an exciting pace, gripping even the most attention challenged viewer.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 15, 2024

A screen saver posing as a movie, with a dead-end plot merely killing time before, um, killing time.

| Original Score: C- | Jun 12, 2023

HOUSE OF DARKNESS takes a famous gothic horror tale in a new direction as a slightly comical examination of modern dating and misogynistic culture.

| Jan 26, 2023

There’s potential in this marriage of modern sexual dynamics and classic horror, but this chamber piece is like a 100-room mansion populated by three people: much less than half-empty.

| Jan 18, 2023

What pleasures House of Darkness provides in the way of patient, slow-burn suspense it lacks in thematic richness and surprise.

| Dec 23, 2022

This feels like something LaBute wrote in an afternoon on the notes app on his smartphone while thinking about something else.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 4, 2022

... an insipidly chatty comedy horror film whose effect is more mildly irritating than genuinely disconcerting.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 29, 2022

House of Darkness is a fine enough flick, competent in its vision and execution courtesy of writer/director Neil LaBute.

| Sep 26, 2022

House of Darkness is mostly enjoyable and at less than 90 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 22, 2022

Hard to hide the horror when its right there in the title, but Neil LaBute sure tries with this talker about the consequences of one man trying to get laid which is a half-hour episode of something stretched to three times its length.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 21, 2022

There's a lot of crackling chemistry and tension, which is something LaBute does well... I'm mixed on this, but it's a worthy addition to his canon.

| Sep 19, 2022

House of Darkness works as a curious, sometimes-tense acting exercise above all else, and since I’m a collector of great performances, I’ll take it, despite the film’s shortcomings.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 19, 2022

A tepid chamber piece that devolves into #MeToo horror by the end.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2022

While the material here is thin and largely predictable (aside from one great jump scare), the cast is outstanding and the dialogue is snappy, delivered at a brisk pace.

| Sep 16, 2022

It certainly isn’t boring, but the unexpected payoff will be sure to divide audiences.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 15, 2022

House of Darkness isn’t interested in being surprising; the film – and LaBute – are playing on the audience’s awareness of the situation to poke fun at how stupid Long’s character is.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 14, 2022

House of Darkness is a fireside fable gleaned from classic literature, which has been redressed for contemporary audiences. Justin Long and Kate Bosworth work hard with the script from writer-director Neil LaBute to fashion something of depth.

| Original Score: 3.5 | Sep 14, 2022

A frightener that demonstrates how much women fear being in the company of men, no matter what the circumstances. It all makes for one of the year’s better horror films, and a shrewd editorial on sexism to boot.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 12, 2022

It’s hard to overstate how crucial an ingredient Bosworth is to the stew here.

| Sep 10, 2022