The Deep House

New Years Eve 1997, i remember that party for a couple of reasons. It was the first New Years Eve party i have been to with several relatives of mine. We stayed at a Herrgård ( in translation that would be something similar to a big mansion ), that you could rent all rooms from. At this New Years Eve party, my uncle decided that it was time to try and contact the spirits. He picked out a glass that he placed on the table, as he and some of the family members wanted to see if we could make a spirit move the glass. So we sat down at the table, holding hands, as one of my relatives tried to make contact to a spirit. I remember that i tried to play along ( even though i did not really see the glass move ). The party itself was nice, and we shot a lot of fireworks that night, so i can´t complain about the party. But did we talk to any spirit? I never saw anything, of felt anything. I do know that several of my relatives believe in the supernatural, and they still do today. And that´s completely fine with me, as long as they don´t dance to Arvingarna På Lassemans Altan, then i would really know that they are demon possessed. Since i grew up hearing family members talk about supernatural events, i have heard a lot of different experiences. When it comes to supernatural horror films, there are a lot of films to choose between. Every year, we se at least 40 films or more in this category, with similar stories or horror ideas from haunted locations. The ones that i am interested in is usually found footage horror films, if they are made effective. One of the films that comes to my mind, is the 2011 found footage horror film Grave Encounters from directors The Vicious Brothers. The film takes place in a supposedly haunted psychiatric hospital, where a crew of paranormal investigators are making a paranormal television program. Grave Encounters turned out to be better than i expected, since i had no high expectations at all, and is actually well made considering the budget. I do not watch a lot of found foootage horror films these days, as much as i used to around the early 2010´s. But i try to check some titles, if something looks interesting. One of the films i have been hearing a lot of since last year is the film The Deep House. A haunted house underneath a lake? Definetely sounds different, so i finally checked the film out. Is this a must watch for fans of this genre, or is The Deep House more boring than i expected ?

Ben ( James Jagger ) and his girlfriend Tina ( Camille Rowe ) are Youtube vloggers, especially focusing on making haunted houses videos across Europe, trying to find the most haunted locations and make reaction videos on how they experience their visits to these locations. Ben is not happy with the views number, and he wants bigger numbers. As they go to investigate a sanatorium submerged in an artificial lake in south-west France, they find out it is just a crowded vacation spot. At this lake, Ben accidently meet a local man named Pierre ( Éric Savin ), who happens to know about an isolated branch of the lake of Chanteloup, an area that was artificially submerged in 1984, to prevent frequently reccuring, devastating floods. It is in this area of the lake, where Piere tells the couple about a perfect preserved house in the lake. They decide to investigate the location, hoping it will help them get success on social media.

It is possible that i might be one of the few that have reviewed this film so late, considering that this film was actally released in 2021. One of the reasons is that i have planned to watch this film a long time, but it just did not happen until now. Either way, i am still glad that i waited. The Deep House is definetely a different found footage horror film than most releases in this genre, and i think the idea of a house inside a lake is actually a clever idea for a horror film. We see so many horror films that takes place in a house or a cabin, so why not try and do something different? Let´s begin with what i enjoyed mostly about The Deep House. First of all the house itself in the lake do give you a creepy feeling. Especially when you see that this old house is not completely alone, as you begin to understand what really happened here, a long time ago. I especially enjoy the mystery surrounding the family that lived here, and as you see that they are not actually dead yet, still living underneath the water. I think this is where this film manage to make you more interested in the plot, especially when the two main characters are actually struggling to find a way out, running out of oxygen. So here we come to my main problem with the film. The story behind the Youtube couple Ben and Tina, making videos on haunted houses is not really that interesting. The actors do a good job on their characters, especially down in the lake at the house. But their passion to make videos for their viewers are not really that interesting. I will say though that actor James Jagger and actress Camille Row, manage to make the film more interesting as the film goes along, and we leave the vlogging scenes. Directors Alexandre Bustille and Julien Maury ( who directed one of my favourite French horror films known as Inside, a must see ) have definetely brought in some fresh air into the found footage horror genre with The Deep House, and i am thankful for that. This genre needed something different, and i have to say that this film do manage to pull it off in a surprising effective way. If you are not a fan of the found footage horror genre, you might as well skip this one. However, if you do enjoy films in this genre, i definetely think you should give this film a chance. After all, who does not want to visit a haunted house down in a lake? I know that i do ( what can i say, i love new experiences ).

Rating: DDD