A haunted house is always a fun setting for a horror or thriller movie. Things go bump in the night. A creepy child sees a ghost who is living there and who their parents don't believe is real. The spirits who are still there want something and it's up to the main characters to figure out what it is.
While there are definitely some poor examples of this type of story, like the particularly bad 2007 movie The Messengers starring Kristen Stewart and Dylan McDermott, there is one movie from 2020 that might not be critically acclaimed but does do some interesting things with this tale. You Should Have Left offers a new take on a scary story about a haunted house, and people who enjoy watching thrillers will find some entertainment here.
You Should Have Left is a great horror movie adaptation as it's based on the book by Daniel Kehlmann. The first part of You Should Have Left feels like a typical haunted house story, or perhaps a haunted vacation rental story. Like the recent movie Superhost or 2020's The Rental, the house that Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) and Theo (Kevin Bacon) rent might not be the best or most relaxing place to stay. There are some seriously creepy, bad vibes here, and they both feel it from the start. It would be perfectly fine if the movie was about the couple seeing ghosts as they try to figure out why there is a supernatural presence there, as a thriller about spirits can be fun and there are many solid haunted house horror films. But the movie changes course and ends up being a fresh look at how haunted a house can really be.
As Theo feels an odd connection to the house, audiences learn that when his late wife died, it wasn't really an accident. Susanna finds out that Theo let his wife die because she began to drown and he did absolutely nothing, a totally chilling realization. Susanna takes their daughter Ella (Avery Essex) and leaves while Theo is destined to stay at the house. The movie's perfect explanation comes out now: people are drawn to this house when they have done something horrible in their past. It's like the house is getting revenge and helping them pay for their sins and terrible actions. Theo seems okay with this as he has been living with this grief and guilt for so long. While some movie plot twists are boring, this one makes sense and explains why Theo doesn't seem as freaked out about this haunted house as his wife does.
While creepy messages are a hallmark of thriller and horror movies, whether messages on a car, wall, or mirror, You Should Have Left does a particularly good job with some warnings throughout the movie. Theo is told "you should have left" and "now it's too late" and a local resident who runs a store (which seems to be the only place to buy food) lets him know that "the place finds them anyway."
A successful horror or thriller film needs a couple who are in the midst of some problems, from cheating to fighting about money to struggling with one partner working more than the other. You Should Have Left does a good job of portraying a couple who wanted to take some time off of work for a nice and relaxing family vacation while knowing that things aren't perfect between them. Susanna and Theo feel like fully formed characters and Susanna's successful career as an actress and natural instincts as a mother help audiences feel sympathetic when she learns that Theo has some darkness inside of him.
Even though Susanna is cheating on her husband, it still feels like she's a character who fans can feel badly for. Whether Amanda Seyfried is starring in The Dropout as Elizabeth Holmes or in the thriller Things Heard And Seen, fans can see her incredible acting talent and ability to play any kind of character, from a sympathetic one to a clear villain. It feels like since Theo was part of this horrible moment from his past and Susanna is scared of this house, there is no way for this couple to move forward.
Sinister succeeds because Ethan Hawke's true crime writer character Ellison believes that the horrors that he's experiencing are true and he fully leans into what's happening. Theo does the same thing here. While this movie isn't the most beloved and it didn't make a massive splash when it came out in 2020, there are still some interesting things to note about it. By telling a story about a haunted house who knows the evil pasts of the people who stay there, You Should Have Left does a successful job of elevating this genre and giving horror fans something new to think about.