{"id":1633647,"date":"2022-09-06T07:48:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T11:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1633647"},"modified":"2022-09-06T07:48:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T11:48:40","slug":"how-house-of-darkness-fumbles-metoo-scares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-house-of-darkness-fumbles-metoo-scares\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u201cHouse Of Darkness\u201d Fumbles MeToo Scares"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-house-of-darkness-fumbles-metoo-scares%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1633647&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Neil LaBute mastered the cinematic art of sexual politics long before \u201cMe Too\u201d entered the\u00a0<\/strong><b>lexicon.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>LaBute\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/in-the-company-of-men-review-1997\/\">In the Company of Men<\/a>,\u201d followed by the nasty \u201cYour Friends &#038; Neighbors,\u201d defined his early career until clunkers like \u201cThe Wicker Man\u201d remake and the unseen \u201cDirty Weekend\u201d slowed his roll.<\/p>\n<p>So it makes sense his latest project, \u201cHouse of Darkness,\u201d revisits his early themes through a MeToo-approved filter.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s missing? A story eager to grab us and a central character worth our disdain.<\/p>\n<p>Meet Hap (Justin Long). He met a gorgeous woman at a bar named Mina (Kate Bosworth), and he graciously gave her a ride home. Chivalry isn\u2019t dead.<\/p>\n<p>Even better for him? She doesn\u2019t want the night to end there.<\/p>\n<p>She all but drags him into her spacious home, or rather castle. That\u2019s important for several reasons we won\u2019t spoil here.<\/p>\n<p>Hap and Mina drink and flirt and flirt some more, but why does he keep seeing images out of the corner of his eyes?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/alyssa-milano-metoo-hypocrisy-biden-media\/\"><strong>RELATED: MILANO\u2019s METOO HYPOCRISY HAS PLENTY OF COMPANY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s be clear. LaBute couldn\u2019t make \u201cIn the Company of Men\u201d today \u2026 unless The Daily Wire or another unwoke company forked up the cash. So he reverse engineered the sexual dynamics to fit Hollywood\u2019s new agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Cowardly? Perhaps. Then again, why would LaBute revisit his greatest hits? Been there, crushed that.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s clear is \u201cHouse of Darkness\u201d is a slog with a finale that, while shocking, doesn\u2019t justify the wait. The film\u2019s restrictive settings \u2013 much of the story happens in a single room \u2013 hardly help. Nor does endless banter that feels like it\u2019s playing on a condescending loop.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s interesting to hear LaBute reveal the new dating rules, from Hap\u2019s overly accommodating mien to the wolf lurking below the surface. The director is plugged into today\u2019s dating culture, but it doesn\u2019t make \u201cHouse of Darkness\u201d any more engaging.<\/p>\n<p>We get the cut of Hap\u2019s jib early on, so every new line proves disposable. Except Hap\u2019s shtick is meant to carry the movie.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">House of Darkness, 2022: Official poster<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA man is invited to a mysterious woman\u2019s home for a nightcap after meeting at a local bar, but the evening doesn\u2019t follow the usual path toward seduction once they step through her front door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Starring Justin Long and Kate Bosworth. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Mvk4DUj9tv\">pic.twitter.com\/Mvk4DUj9tv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fear Catalogue (@FearCatalogue) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FearCatalogue\/status\/1552329994004733959?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 27, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Long\u2019s casting presents both an opportunity and a problem. The actor\u2019s puppy dog demeanor, think likable Joes in \u201cJeepers Creepers\u201d and \u201cDrag Me to Hell,\u201d makes audiences rally by his side. Hap is so wildly insincere, though, that he quickly loses our trust.<\/p>\n<p>Fine. Good. That\u2019s partially the point. Now, you\u2019re stuck with a deeply unpleasant character tasked with carrying the film. You\u2019ll wish Jason, Freddy or Pinhead would take him out, stat.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, we get even more unctuous dialogue, all devised to make himself sound like the good guy.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s not a monster, just a fraud. Nor does he post a threat to Mina, but if she leads him on he\u2019ll gladly oblige.<\/p>\n<p>Harvey Weinstein, he ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>That dynamic, plus a near complete lack of surprise, sinks \u201cHouse of Darkness.\u201d There\u2019s little to be alarmed about beyond one neat jump scare. And the film\u2019s resolution hardly merits the protracted build-up even though the running time is, on paper, a crisp 90 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Equally murky? The power dynamic favors Mina, who has control over every aspect of their potential one-night stand. Her beauty, and orchestrated mystery, keep Hap off balance from the very first exchange.<\/p>\n<p>That connects to superior films like \u201cPromising Young Woman,\u201d which also assumed men were potential savages. That film boasted a strong turn from Carey Mulligan and some intriguing twists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHouse of Darkness\u201d has just one card up its sleeve, and anyone who can\u2019t take an educated guess at it just isn\u2019t trying.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HIT or Miss:<\/strong> Neil LaBute\u2019s knack for exploring sexual politics fails him in the flat genre exercise \u201cHouse of Darkness.\u201d It also packs the most generic title in recent memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neil LaBute mastered the cinematic art of sexual politics long before \u201cMe Too\u201d entered the\u00a0lexicon. LaBute\u2019s \u201cIn the Company of Men,\u201d followed by the nasty \u201cYour Friends &#038; Neighbors,\u201d defined<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1633649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1633647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1633647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1633647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1633647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1633647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}