Home for Rent

Ning decides to rent out the house she lives in with her husband and small daughter; the family will move elsewhere and the rent will be income. The tenants are a quiet, orderly, polite family. After a while Ning notices strange things: what the tenants do at night, the arrangement they have made inside the house, and her husband growing closer to them. She works out that they belong to a cult, and that her daughter is what the cult wants. Sophon Sakdaphisit directs. It is a Thai production released on Netflix. The idea rests on a practice known in Thailand: some groups perform rituals believed to bring wealth and protection, and a number of these involve the use of corpses or of children. The narrative uses that ground. The horror comes from human behaviour rather than the supernatural; the tensest scenes take place during ordinary conversation. Sophon Sakdaphisit is a known figure in Thai horror and his earlier films are in the same vein. The mother is at the centre and nobody believes her; the film keeps that loneliness present. Its limit is the last section; as the narrative resolves the tension it falls into genre and the explanations come fast. Who it is for: viewers who like Thai horror and thrillers built on belief. Who it is not for: some scenes are disturbing, the pace drops in the middle, and the ending is expected.