Lyvia's House review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month, I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, and some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
LYVIA’s house
Obviously, I love horror, but getting to review a film that had those elements combined with a thriller had me really intrigued. Enter the film Lyvia’s House to my world and it became a picture I really enjoyed. (Thanks, Scott Motisko) The elevator pitch is Twin Peaks meets Get Out. Not bad. The story is more than that, though. I must say I do love a movie that begins with a Texas funeral.
Our main characters are Tara (Tara Nichol Caldwell) and Johnny (Joshua Malekos) A young couple who are moving into a new, huge home in a small, rural part of California. Notable that Tara is leaving behind her life in Vegas for this. Johnny is an architect, and it turns out that this house was owned by an Italian artist named Lyvia. However, Lyvia seems to have disappeared as of late. Hmmm. The audience loves the huge home with the tile roof and walnut trees. It’s perfect, right? Well, it doesn’t have internet or phone (or TV either!) Tara is a writer and needs the web to write and publish her work. Walking around after moving in, she meets neighbors who seem a bit off, and a young man named Georgie who ends up watching she and Johnny after being in the shower. As the days and weeks pass, there still isn’t phone or internet and Tara begins to, as does the audience, feel that something is going on here. She’s essentially being gaslit by Johhny who just seems to shrug everything off and says he’ll get to it. Tara begins to suspect even more after a local woman is killed. Going so far as to start following Johhny during the day. She follows him to a local cemetery where he leaves flowers on a woman’s grave. She’s often talking with her friend Danielle who, of course, is the only one who sees what is really happening here and implores her the get the heck up on out of there. The third and final act become a surreal, color saturated conclusion that although you know these reviews are full of spoilers – I have left spoiler free this time! It has twists and tense moments I just don’t want to ruin for you.
Patricia V. Davis is the screenwriter of Lyvia’s House. This story is inspired by real life murders that took place in the Sacramento Valley in 1971 committed by Juan Corona – read up on this story true crime fans. She really did a lot of work to write this and I appreciate what she came up with. I mentioned the film’s final act. Lots of colors that match the mood and emotions of the characters. Green colors at night with shadows and fiery oranges and reds in the conclusion. I think I saw a reference to Pan’s Labyrinth as an inspiration. Nice work by Cinematographer and Director Niko Volonakis. Watch it in 4K if you can – it looks really nice.
Lyvia’s House hits VOD on October 1st. Visit https://lyviashouse.com for more.
Enjoy the trailer - https://vimeo.com/950937438/fcd41b7a07