‘The Front Room’ Review: Brandy’s Horror Movie Return Is Stolen

“Are you kidding me?” a character whispers to herself in disbelief in “The Front Room” (played by singer-actress Brandy Norwood, who returns to horror films 26 years after “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer”). Her bewildered reaction sums up the experience of watching the parade of absurd bodily excrement and malicious laughter that makes up the directorial debut of Max and Sam Eggers, based on a short story by British author Susan Hill. The twin filmmakers are the half-brothers of Robert Eggers, a better-known name in genre cinema with “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse.” But there’s a hidden pleasure in this over-the-top, bizarrely toned effort from the lesser-known Eggers brothers.

Belinda (Norwood) and her husband Norman (Andrew Burnap), who have quit their teaching jobs due to discrimination and are struggling to make ends meet, are working as public interest lawyers, and their plight seems to be on the line. After Norman’s father dies, his widow, the religious and cunning Solange (Katherine Hunter), offers the couple everything her husband left behind. The clue? They must take her in and live with her until the end of her days.

Norman, who grew up in a strict Christian and outspoken racist household in Solange, warns Belinda that his stepmother will not approve of their interracial marriage. But with a baby on the way, one income, and a house in need of repair, they accept Solange as a guest who will eventually take over their space, their thoughts, and even the decisions they make as partners.

Andrew Burnap and Brandy Norwood in the film “The Front Room.”

(A24)

Hunter’s character is introduced at a funeral, wearing a black veil and holding two sturdy canes. The sound of the canes hitting the wooden floor of the house becomes an unsettling motif. She moves with difficulty, as if waking from a long sleep. However, her high-pitched voice and southern accent complete the innocent and sweet charisma that makes Belinda initially believe her intentions. What makes things worse is that Solange believes she has a special connection to the Holy Spirit, who manifests through her speaking in tongues.

The scary premise of “The Front Room” hardly prepares you for what it delivers: hilarious punchlines, explosive stomach-churning moments of darkly humorous absurdity that would sit more naturally in a raunchy teen comedy. Solange’s disgusting antics against her housemates seem to be what Egger is after: She seems to demand as much attention as a newborn, using her exaggerated vulnerability as a weapon.

Hunter’s kinky playfulness with even the most bizarre excrement scenes fuels a disturbing but brilliant performance, one that’s far more memorable than the film as a whole. A respected actor with a long career in theater, he’s also been seen in recent films like “Poor Things” and Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Hunter is a destructive force. Meanwhile, Norwood’s wide-eyed reaction to Solange’s astonishing audacity is a powerful argument, leaving her in a perpetually shocking and completely legitimate state. If there’s any surprise in “The Front Room,” it’s in how far Solange is willing to go with her foul play.

The Eggers ultimately undercut the concentrated dose of WTF midnight movie fun by trying to sneak in deeper commentary on the overwhelming presence of Judeo-Christian worldviews in race and American society. The dreamy mix of religious iconography and explicit maternal imagery that Belinda witnesses in her ghostly visions reads derivative and unoriginal. (Try instead the excellent 2022 Mexican film “Huesera: The Bone Woman,” also a supernatural thriller about the perils of bearing a child for the first time, with metaphors better woven into the plot.)

The familiar ending undermines the film’s status up until that point, turning it into a piece of trashy cleverness that is wildly unpredictable. Despite the artificial third act, the audience in the theater is expected to react to “The Front Room” with audible gasps as it performs one sickening stunt at a time.