The opening shot of We’re Not Safe Here is hauntingly captivating—a woman had her face covered with a blood-stained pillowcase, and the voice of a young girl reassuringly stated “it’s okay, mommy” moments before stabbing the woman. Is the film about a mother and her daughter? Does the spirit of the dead mother continue to haunt the house? Why did the little girl kill her mother? Was she abusive? Or was it a supernatural force that convinced her to do it? A bunch of questions will immediately cloud your mind. The title suggested that maybe it is a story of a haunted house, but it turned out to be a little more complex than just that.
Neeta was a talented artist, but lately she’d been struggling to stay focused. She felt anxious and often wondered if she even had the potential to make art. During the day, she taught at a local school, though she’d been really looking forward to winter break to take some time off. Sarah, her colleague/friend, noticed the fatigue in Neeta’s eyes. It was obvious that something was bothering her. Sarah had complete faith in Neeta’s talents and told her that a well put together person like herself should never delve into such thoughts. And she strongly believed that Neeta would soon find a subject captivating enough to help her focus. Neeta hoped so too, but the minute she stood before a canvas, she blanked out. Out of frustration, she ended up stabbing the canvas. Neeta received an unexpected call from her colleague, Rachel. She had been missing her classes for some time, and Neeta had been worried about her. She could sense the panic in Rachel’s voice when she begged Neeta to spare some time to listen to a very difficult situation she’d recently lived through. Neeta welcomed her into her home even though it was quite late. What followed after was nothing short of a nightmare. Neeta patiently listened to Rachel’s life story only to realize that she, in a strange way, was being dragged into it.
Solomon Gray’s debut feature film is satisfyingly unhurried. The layers are gradually peeled back, carefully avoiding the usual cliches that have come to define the genre. The dialogue is crucial in the film because most of the scare factor is derived from the story that the characters narrate. Instead of flashbacks, the director chooses to keep the camera fixed on faces, capturing the terror and anxiety up close. The presence of a supernatural force was gradually introduced. At first it seemed that the horror was confined within the walls of the house, but as soon as one of the characters stepped outside, the terror started to spread. We’re Not Safe Here successfully builds anticipation, but unfortunately it doesn’t quite deliver. The conversation between Rachel and Neeta, particularly Rachel’s narration of her spine-chilling experience, will have you hooked on the story. But then it doesn’t lead to much. The anticipation for something extreme to unfold on-screen is stretched way too long. What was interesting at first soon starts to feel dragged. Almost an hour into a 90-minute film, and nothing significant had yet happened. Maybe that would’ve been acceptable in a drama, but as a horror, that’s just way too much buildup. It would have worked if the climax had been exceptionally good, but that’s not really the case here.
Horror films often tend to be open-ended; the climax is meant to leave you with certain questions, and the more you delve into it, the more intriguing it gets. We’re Not Safe Here keeps certain details concealed, and considering a lot of what the characters experience are either nightmares or hallucinations, not all of it can be logically explained. This could’ve made for something really interesting, but most of the conclusions that you tend to arrive at aren’t as profound as you would’ve expected. It felt like a film that had frills but very little substance, and that’s always so disappointing. The ending is not difficult to comprehend, but I just wished it would have done something a little more exciting, perhaps added a well-fleshed-out bit of lore to tie it all together. Whatever unfolds in the final thirty minutes of the film is significant to the plot yet not impactful enough to keep you on the edge of your seats. The blood-stained pillowcase, visually and in terms of the unsettling sensation it evokes (of having one’s head wrapped in a shroud), was a smart choice of prop in a horror, but it remained more of a conceptual idea, and it didn’t evolve into something truly impactful. It would’ve worked out if the narrative was engaging, but the prop alone couldn’t save the show.
Sharmita Bhattacharya and Hayley McFarland as Neeta and Rachel (respectively) deliver a convincing performance. The film depended on the facial expressions of the characters to induce a sense of dread and panic in the audience, and the actors did a fine job at that. The buildup is honestly the best part of the film, and Rachel’s (Hayley McFarland) narration of her experience is pretty much what builds the framework of We’re Not Safe Here.
We’re Not Safe Here is a mixed bag. The fact that the usual tropes are avoided is definitely worth appreciating, but what is the point of a horror if it doesn’t really leave you petrified? The blood-stained pillowcase and all that it signified, along with the unhurried approach at the beginning of the film, is perhaps the only saving grace. The background score is also worth a mention; the song “Save Yourself” evokes an eeriness that sets the mood just right. The film will surely invite you in, but whether you’ll want to stay is the real question. In conclusion, We’re Not Safe Here is an average horror film that didn’t really live up to its full potential. Different angles could’ve been explored; there’s a certain lack of depth when it comes to the plot, and while vagueness works in some instances, it doesn’t really add much here. It just leaves you with a bunch of unanswered questions and a strange feeling of dissatisfaction.
