Review: ‘Playhouse’ is a Spooky Scottish Specter Story

November 17, 2020

playhouse review — Playhouse (Devilworks)

Playhouse, the debut film from English filmmakers Fionn and Toby Watts, follows Jack Travis, a quirky and flippant playwright that moves into a Scottish castle with his daughter Bee. Jack wants to use the opportunity to focus on writing a brand-new horror play, and the change of location causes dissonance between Jack and Bee. Unknown to them, an evil presence lurks within the walls of the castle, feeding off Bee’s negative energy, and hoping to make her eventually succumb to its darkness.

As with most of my reviews of debut films, I want to take a second to recognize and appreciate the filmmakers. The Watts brothers clearly had a vision with their story and turned it into something appealing, so kudos to them. Very few debut films turn out as beautiful looking as Playhouse, and they deserve the recognition for that.

Expanding on that aspect, the film was shot in Scotland, which is a gorgeous filming location. The environmental camera work and set were fantastic. The castle was a nice touch and the hazy, drab sea-side atmosphere sold the creepiness of the film. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, European locations are just so much better for horror filming. I love it. The rest of the camera work was extremely competent, but I did have some issues seeing during some of the darker dungeon-style shots throughout the film. There’s a fine line between seeing just enough to be scared by what you can’t see, and not knowing what’s going on because you can’t see anything. There weren’t too many of these shots, though.

The leads all gave good performances. I thought William Holstead’s Jack was a little overly hammy, but it made sense for the type of profession the character was in. Grace Courtney, who played Bee did a fine job at being a tormented teen and fighting off a possession, but I think Helen Mackay’s performance as Jenny stole the show. She was really the only character I became truly invested in. I don’t say this in a negative way, she just stood out among her peers, who all did a decent job.

The story itself had some great moments in it, delivering a gothic appeal you don’t often see in a lot of typical spirit/possession horror films. The gothic-ness of the story builds off the set and location flawlessly, but I felt like it was a little under-developed, and the slow-paced storytelling never really materialized for me. The beauty of a slow-burn horror film for me has always been that drastic change from warm to hot, and I never really felt like the story got cooking.

There were some really excellent suspenseful moments in the film, especially with the dialogue and sound effects that came between Travis and the spirit, but once again, I felt like the intensity was slowly building throughout the entire film, and then fizzled out when I wanted it the most. The effects were few and far between, but looked decent enough, overlaying some CG with darker shots. This is a pretty good strategy when doing ghosts and spirits and brought some We Are Still Here vibes.

Overall, it wasn’t a perfect film, but it was an extremely solid debut from first-time filmmakers. I recommend checking it out if you’re in the mood for spooky slow-burn horror with gorgeous environmental shots, but don’t expect to be blown away by the film itself. I’m excited to see what the Watts brothers put out next and do feel like they’re worth keeping an eye on after Playhouse.

Playhouse is now available on VOD in North America.