Last Updated on September 6, 2024 by
The Front Room is a 2024 horror Movie Directed by Max Eggers and Sam Eggers. The film stars Brandy Norwood, Andrew Burnap, and Kathryn Hunter, with a runtime of 2h 11m, and will be released on September 06, 2024.
Parenthood is challenging on its own, let alone when there are other challenges alongside it. Complicate it with job challenges, financial hardships, and family issues, and the experience becomes not just challenging but almost complicated. In The Front Room, Max and Sam Eggers, who wrote and directed this movie from a short story by Susan Hill, the expectant family does contend with these stressors, of course, but they have another pressing problem to solve. Add to the mix a racist, extraordinarily religious mother-in-law who believes she is possessed by the Holy Spirit, and who should never be left alone with the family’s youngest. The film is a psychological horror on its own with a series of hurdles that test the sanity of the family, but it is also a dark comedy, which exaggerates the vices of a family to an extent that any sane relation would crumble. It may be inconsistent in places, but it has solid characterization and some interesting notes on its theme; the third act needs fine-tuning.
What Is ‘The Front Room’ About?
Belinda (Brandy Norwood) and Norman Irwin (Andrew Burnap) are cautiously anticipating and looking forward to the birth of their second child, a gamble they are willing to take after the death of their first child. Their excitement is threatened when Norman’s father dies. His father’s last wish: is to bring his estranged elderly mother Solange (Kathryn Hunter) home for Norman; the overly devout woman whose beliefs are borderline cult-like (which she loves to be in the spirit now and then) and a parent who does everything but encourage her son to become the man he aspires to be. Solange arrives with a sizable dowry, which can help the young family cope with the economic problems; thus, they do not hesitate to allocate the front room for her. This marks the struggle between the young mother trapped in her house and her domineering and abusive mother-in-law for the baby’s safety, the family, and their sanity. Of villains in films, the vengeful matriarchs have been a favorite; in dramas such as Mommie Dearest or horror such as Hereditary where a grandmother was clandestinely a worshipper of demons. It is a great setup for a comedic horror film like Ready or Not in particular, when Grace (Samara Weaving) is asked what happened to her, blood and viscera-filled body: “In-laws”, The Front Room fits nicely in this tone for a good humorous twist.
When played by Kathryn Hunter, Solange is presented as a tyrant controlling Norman and being an enemy to Belinda. Kathryn is also very versatile as she is equally effective in portraying a mean, controlling, and submissive woman as she is in turning on the laughs. Although she is a petite woman, she dominates the show both visually and verbally (sometimes, we can even hear her voice when she is not shown on the camera). Brandy Norwood also shines donating credible performances as the young and gradually tired and defensive mother and also believably during the movie’s more thrilling scenes. The chemistry between the pair is excellent, particularly when the plot begins to heat up, and they look like actual rivals to one another. Once tension increases after the birth of the child, Brandy increases the level of force in her performance as well, achieving a powerful finish that she hits perfectly. The film has a good sense of its tone – psychological horror imagery and odd moments of surrealism. The element of mystery is managed well as the movie goes on. As Belinda becomes progressively sleepless and cornered, the manifestation of the menacing mother figure mothers and reality become intertwined intensely. Moreover, there is as much obvious malingering here as to question the ‘Signs and Wonders,’ meaning the fake ‘possessed’ by the Holy Spirit that Solange claims to have. While the film still allows viewers to make certain conclusions on their own, it does change the cinematography and the lighting to certain extents to indicate that Belinda is falling apart and to shift the power relationship between Belinda and Solange to an extent. The strain on Belinda grows persistently, and it’s skillfully portrayed on screen.
What is important to point out here is the fact that the movie is not just a simple psychological horror film with elements of humor being present in the film infrequently and in the form of gross-out humor, while the film also has some slapstick comedy incorporated into its narrative at times. Several of Solange’s terrors are direct points connected to issues relating to her age, which is used explicitly and underscored frequently. Several of them are very good due to line-delivery work by Brandy Norwood and an impressive ability by Kathryn Hunter to flip the mood of her performance at any given second. However, although some of the specific terrors and stressors do build and thankfully are not stagnant, their repetitiveness fades after being reused without enough variation (like some sounds becoming přístupné, or the growing presence of Christian symbols).
The repetition does help signify the intrusions of the world outside her mind on Belinda but the sameness is established a little too well in the text. The other interesting aspect is the way the film leverages bodily fluids for both suspense and humor, a practice that, as far as the narrative of the film is concerned, is quite reasonable, yet seems to become annoying as the film progresses. Thus, one may agree with the statement that Solange is an oppressive force who weaponizes vulnerability, yet simultaneously, we start to question how much of Solange’s apparent frailty is staged to maintain power over her family. That is immensely helpful and a great example of a plot point, but where it spinning its cultish Christianity at its most oppressive is where it would be good to expand on it, just as the narrative increasingly focuses on the coarser aspects of aging. It is employed effectively sometimes, but to rely on repeated and violently vulgar aspects for comedy and suspense is unfortunate given the aspects that could use more screen time.
For the most part, there is much to appreciate in The Front Room. First of all, Kathryn Hunter fits the role of an evil and cunning Solange perfectly and Brandy Norwood captures Belinda’s character fully and truly at the moment when she gets real competition. They have some nice banter back and forth and a series of struggle for dominance scenes that seem to add enough variation to the theme to keep things going until the piece continues. The problems of the film are more or less related to the issue of excess or repetition. First, several of Solange’s aggressive strategies are mimicked excessively. Second, they whisk away some of the most entertaining beats for the final act plot, and towards scenes and choices that don’t quite come off as best intended, until it finds the endgame (which it does). In sum, it is a somewhat sound dark comedy masked as a psychological horror movie.
The Front Room 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
The Front Room is rated R by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA) language, some violent/disturbing content, brief sexuality, and nudity.
Violence & Gore: The psychological horror is ratcheted up throughout the movie with a level of consistent escalation. Solange, the domineering mother-in-law becomes menacing and the confrontation scenes become more alarming. Two dramatic scenes of psychological abuse with manipulation of sweet revenge and fanatic religious dominance, where Solange tries to dominate her family, especially Belinda. This animosity results in uncomfortable acts of dominance between the two contestants. Blood is used for horror and at some points for black comedy including scenes with shots of naked skin with evident bodily fluids. These might be unsettling, for example, the use of blood and other fluids, is probably going to be gross or meant to make people cringe. Some instances depict some sort of violении towards the newborn and threats to the safety of the family. What aggravates horror, Belinda is frightened, she experiences increasing mental pressure and gets no sleep, the reality is interwoven with her hallucinations. Clerical crosses, religion, and other related emblems are effective in setting the oppressive ambiance, and some shots indicate that Solange practices magic or believes in the arranging of the Holy Ghost. Parodic hallucinations projecting the state of mind of the cha ratzer as well as scenes of madness and other somber visual effects of Belinda’s descent into the state of paranoid schizophrenia are quite graphic and could be off-putting to some audience members.
Profanity: The movie is very much appropriate for adult audiences since there is an aggressive use of profanity throughout the film. Unfortunately, the dialogues of the characters are filled with abusive language when they feel angry, scared, or upset. There is the use of religious language and swearing focusing on Solange invoking the power of God or the Devil during the family’s quarrels.
Sexual Content: The film contains some elements including scenes of sexual content and naked people. One or two periods may contain suggestive content, but it is not X-rated. Some nudity and skin are depicted in a nonerotic manner, it may be linked to the portrayal of physical frailty and stress in the family unit. Based on the psychological tone, this may be used to cause some uneasiness or even surprise. As a play primarily conveys the themes of motherhood and fertility, there are several rationalizations of the pregnancy and childbirth processes and their physiological implications.
Alcohol, Drugs, and Smoking: There is very little emphasis on drug or alcohol usage in the movie. However, Solange’s unpredictable and all-around conduct may point to possession or mental disability thereby drawing a correlation with substance abuse.
