I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House follows a nurse as she moves into the home of a retired horror author to take care of her, but soon learns of the house's dark past and the other residents living there.
This is not at all the movie I expected. It isn't littered with jump scares or even scary imagery, but rather relies heavily on it's atmosphere. It's a slow burn thriller for sure, and is more of a drama than an actual horror/thriller. There are very few aspects of the movie that are actually scary, and the parts that are don't pack a whole lot of punch. The first scare of the movie is actually the most unsettling, but after that point the whole movie just kind of stops trying. Regardless, it's an interesting idea with interesting pacing.
The writing starts out really good, with mostly realistic dialogue, but as soon as the first scare pops up the movie just dips down. In fact, there's hardly any dialogue to begin with anyway.
The movie is paced pretty well. It almost whips by, and I think that it is partially due to the fact that not much actually happens. Like I said, the movie relies heavily on atmosphere, and doesn't go for much in terms of physical scares. With no more than a 90 minute run- time there's not much room for content, and thus it goes by reasonably quickly.
Watching this movie I felt like there was more to it, like the writer and director Oz Perkins knew something about the story that wasn't directly stated during the movie. Maybe he tried to drop some subtle hint at it, but I didn't notice if there was.
Overall I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is decent. It's not a typical horror/thriller by any means, but that doesn't make it necessarily better. It's a movie that by the end I felt like there was something I was missing, but I couldn't quite place what it was. Maybe I'll have to see it again. Regardless, it's a decent movie. In the end I would recommend it, just don't expect your classic horror/thriller, or you will likely be disappointed.
