The latest by Inside directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, The Deep House, washes ashore on November 5 on EPIX, marking a return to the haunted house subgenre for the pair. But one with a unique twist; the house is submerged deep underwater. It’s not the first time Bustillo and Maury stretched the boundaries of haunted house fare, either. 2007’s Livid, still unreleased stateside, gave a vampiric fairy tale spin on the haunted house and its horrors set over Halloween night.
Livid follows Lucy (Chloé Coulloud), a young woman training to become an at-home nurse and still reeling from her mother’s death. She’s grown estranged from her father, who’s taken to working nights and moving on in his personal life. When accompanying Mrs. Wilson (Catherine Jacob) on patient rounds, they finish the day at an ornate, isolated mansion owned by comatose Mrs. Jessel (Marie-Claude Pietragalla), a former ballet instructor rumored to possess treasure hidden somewhere with the walls. Lucy’s boyfriend, William (Félix Moati), convinces her and his brother Ben (Jérémy Kapone) to break into the home on Halloween to claim the treasure for themselves. But they quickly realize they’re not alone.
In route, the leads get startled by a trio of lantern-bearing trick or treaters, a nod to the Silver Shamrock masks of Halloween III. It’s the most recognizable Halloween iconography in a horror fairy tale that uses the holiday in a much more understated way. That begins with the will-o’-wisp that attracts Lucy as the group walks through a field toward the mansion. The ghostly blue light is a flickering beacon at night, guiding travelers to their deaths. It’s a foreboding warning of the horrors that await Lucy, Ben, and William at their destination.
Folklore refers to will-o’-wisps as spirits, often wandering souls trapped in limbo. One of the most famous legends is that of the jack-o-lantern, once a synonymous term for will-o’-wisp. The Irish folktale of Stringy Jack tells of a man so mischievous that neither the Hell nor Heaven would let him in their gates, and the vengeful Devil sent him off into the night with only a lump of coal to light his path, forever. People began to create their versions of Jack’s lanterns from this legend until it evolved into Halloween tradition.
Only Lucy embraces the will-o’-wisp, another subtle foreshadowing. Once inside Mrs. Jessel’s eerie mansion, they find not treasure but death. More specifically, a corpse of Jessel’s daughter Anna, a young ballerina on a pedestal that Lucy winds to life like a music box with a key. This moment traps the trio inside as the dead return to waking life around them, including the comatose and controlling Jessel. This house, awakened on Halloween night, is a purgatory for Anna and now, possibly, Lucy.
Halloween drops the veil between the living and the dead, which means that Livid builds toward a phantasmagorical finale. Bustillo and Maury reinterpret standard fixtures of Halloween in an unconventional way- the jack-o-lantern, trick or treaters, vampires, haunted houses, the spirit realm, and even a little witchcraft. It is handled with their distinct style and penchant for stark violence, run through a dreamlike fairy tale.
Livid was released in France in December 2011 after a successful festival run, and news of an American remake followed suit a year later. Those plans fell into development hell, and the film never received a proper release stateside, relegating Livid to hidden Halloween gem. While it’s easy enough to import, here’s hoping for a special release via boutique label in the future.
At least we have a new haunted house reinterpretation by Bustillo and Maury to look forward to in the meantime with The Deep House.