Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘House of Good and Evil’

Written by Scott Edwards 

Getting a fresh start in a long-term relationship is sometimes key to staying together with your loved one. Some couples are able to make their relationships stronger by just leaving their home and going on vacation for a week or two, while others have to find a way to remove themselves from the hustle and bustle of their lives and move. While a new home could add another chapter to your life, if the same people are present, it may not change one thing about what is causing the problems in the relationship. But if you are really in love, you have to fight to keep the relationship strong and you never know what will help it, if you never try.

Chris and Maggie Conley are going through tough times living in the city. After an argument turned a little bit violent and Chris pushed his wife down, the couple who were expecting their first born will have to wait longer as it caused a miscarriage. Needing to find a way to stay together, Chris has found a house that would be perfect for the couple to try and reconnect in outside of the city. When the couple comes upon their new home, they are blown away by how far it is from civilization, and how isolated it really is.

With no phone and no electricity, Maggie is concerned about what will happen if they get into trouble again, but Chris is a changed man and will let nothing come between their love. When talking to the realtor about the house, they find out that they will have tenants living next store for the next thirty days, and although they will not be alone, their new neighbors will not bother them for anything. Thinking this is the prefect move for them both, Chris is excited to see what the house will bring for them both, but he also has a new firefighting job in the adjacent town that will keep him away for days at a time. Although Maggie is upset that he is leaving her to unpack by herself, she is ready to make their new house into something special for them both. 

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​While unpacking however, Maggie hears a phone ringing in the extra bedroom that is locked and knowing that there is no phone service in the area, she tries to investigate. Getting into the locked room, she finds that the phone is on the other side of the wall, the tenant’s side, and she stands and listens to the conversation on the other end. But when she turns her back on the door, it shuts mysteriously and locks her into the dark room. When Chris returns home to find her passed out in the room, he tries to nurse her back to health, but he will have to leave again for his job very soon. Taking a walk around their grounds, the couple finds a spot where there is a strong cell phone signal and agree to have a daily call and Maggie will have to be there a certain time every day. Knowing that they need to do this, Maggie rides her bike down the trail to the point, but her phone gets lost when the call is supposed to come through. 
 
Getting back to the house, she continues to hear the phone ring in the tenant’s space, but thinking she is crazy, she tries to ignore it since she has seen the downed lines with her own eyes. As the days pass and Chris is off training for his new job, strange things start happening around the house and Maggie is worried that there is no escaping what is coming next, until she meets one of her tenants, Mrs. Anderson. Finally talking with her neighbor, Mrs. Anderson, Maggie is frightened to find that the old woman’s story is the same as her own. Needing to talk to her husband about what is happening in the house, along with their tenants, Maggie starts to let her anger flow to the top and gets upset with her absent husband for the smallest of things. Needing to find out what is really going on, Maggie confronts her neighbors about what has been happening in the house for so many years, but her husband is not on board with the plan and becomes an innocent bystander.

This movie had me guessing at every point and when the ending came around, I did not know what to think about it. I did enjoy how the story of a young couple with violence problems played out and how the move would have affected them both. Without seeing the neighbors for so long, it was fun to imagine what was happening in the other side of the house, since it was obvious that they had a secret and a phone that tormented poor Maggie to no end. Watching Maggie turn into someone different was probably the best part of the movie, and it was all a result of how something new came to harass her, every day she was alone in the house. It would be hard to imagine what would happen to a city person moving to a place so isolated, but this movie did a fine job exploring it. Stay Scared.

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