House of Thaddeus

The premise is pretty standard: Couple leaves behind old life to embrace new life in a new home, only to find out new home has its own old and troubled past. "Tom" is the rational-minded teacher of science who dismisses much of what happens; "Claire" is the intuitive pianist who embraces much of what happens.

That said, the writing is well above what we find in the the standard haunted house flick. The same can be said for the acting in this micro-budget film, which is uniformly excellent (and I would give a special nod to both Joi Hoffsommer and William Kephart, who comes across rather convincingly as an extra-cranky Ron Howard type).

In the end, the film is rather non-committal about whether what we are seeing is natural or super-natural, as the "point" seems to be the dysfunction the home introduces into the marriage of Tom and Claire and how they deal with that dysfunction. To that end, House of Thaddeus almost appears to be a clever critique of how monstrous acts can be commodified, sold to and adopted by a very specific sector of the public, some of whom (like Claire) almost seem to embrace the horrors as giving some meaning to lives that are otherwise in need of some meaning or purpose.

It's a slow burn, but if you enjoy a more character-driven film, this might work for you.

Oh, and the soundtrack that includes both familiar pieces (Debussy's Claire de Lune) and original music by John Toenjes is quite tasteful and used to good effect.