The Beach House is summer-time horror at its peak that dives into a hellish nightmare with four unfortunate souls instead of making the romantic beachside kiss last forever. Director Jeffrey A. Brown conjures up a psychedelic journey into monsters and madness while staying grounded inside his character's personal relationships and struggles. It's a great mix of atmospheric terror, gore, and storytelling that is completely satisfying. The Beach House is best described as if H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King vacationed to the beach together one summer where their creations came true. It doesn't disappoint.
The story centers around young couple Randall (Noah Le Gros) and Emily (Liana Liberato) who arrive at a beach house for a long weekend of romance and sun-tanning. It almost comes to a screeching halt when they realize an older couple is already staying at the house - Mitch (Jake Weber) and Jane (Maryanne Nagel). After an awkward introduction and small-talk, the four adults get along quite well with some food, booze, and drugs. The film seems to wander into dark comedy territory, but soon enough, things go sour real quick. Elements of nature start to turn against their human counterparts, but in a slow, decaying manner, which affects these couple's attitudes. Bizarre behavior is evident as the threat and realistic nightmares begin.
From strange tentacled creatures, worms, mist, and otherworldly entities that can be considered a virus, these four people begin to realize there is no escape as they all slowly descend into madness and mayhem. even going so far as to tear out some of these alien-like slithering bugs out of their own bodies that will definitely satisfy the gore crowd. With all that in mind, Film Director Jeffrey Brown also examines the layers of new and old relationships with these two couples. As this virus grows bigger and presents the four with larger problems, their relationships with one another also take a path that is unnerving which is evident from the very start of the film.
The destruction is both on a grand scale as it is a very intimate scale with these individuals that run parallel with one another. The atmospheric sounds and trippy visuals only enhance the dark and sinister tone this movie takes on, which is a slow mounting crescendo into hell. Jeffrey A. Brown certainly has something to say in the horror genre and with The Beach House, his mark on cinema is a strong one for the horror that will bring the genre in a new direction.
Noah Le Gros and Liana Liberato turn in excellent performances with Liana stealing every scene she's in. Not only does The Beach House provide some great atmospheric scares, but it also has an innermost message of the hardships of a relationship and how quickly it can devolve. Highly Recommended
