The Keeping Hours

Mark and Elizabeth lost their son seven years ago and have been separated for six. Mark lives alone in the old house and things start happening in it: toys out of the cupboard, marks on a fogged window. The boy is there, but only during certain hours of the night. Once they realise it they move back in together and try to build a few hours of family life with their dead child. Karen Moncrieff uses the ghost-story frame not to frighten but to give physical form to the bargaining stage of grief. Lee Pace and Carrie Coon lead and both play it without display. It is a Blumhouse production and took the audience award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet films that borrow the horror frame for drama. Who it is not for: anyone wanting distance from a child's death and mourning.