The Front Room Film Review: Thrilling Debut

Sam Eggers and Max Eggers give a thrilling directorial debut in The Front Room, which harkens back to the psycho-biddy films of the past.

However, one must always look at a movie like this as a singular authorial work, not as ‘the sibling of’ a popular filmmaker. Too many people did this with Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers, looking at her feature debut as ‘the daughter of’ M. Night Shyamalan rather than a singular work from Ishana. Approaching The Front Room as a unique film from The Eggers Brothers distances us from Robert’s work and instead showcases a talent that’s bound to develop, with a hagsploitation (also known as psycho-biddy) movie that grows decidedly wicked and darkly funny as its 94 runtime progresses.

It’s not perfect, and it certainly won’t be for everyone. There are plenty of elongated, gross-out sequences that involve bodily fluids and vomit, and an unsettling atmosphere that begins to stick with you as its obscene sequences get more disgusting. I won’t reveal a thing here, not necessarily because of spoilers, but due to my rather sensible stomach (and as I’m writing these words, I’m beginning to remember everything that went down in the movie). It definitely won’t be for people who are perhaps too squeamish with these types of scenes, as the movie’s more ‘horrific’ moments mostly see its protagonist, Belinda (Brandy Norwood), having to clean copious amounts of fluids from Solange (Kathryn Hunter), whom she is now taking care of.

After Norman’s (Andrew Burnap, playing Belinda’s husband) father dies, the couple is now forced to take Solange, Norman’s stepmother, into their care. In her last will and testament, she is willing to give all of her life savings to them, should they accept. Norman immediately refuses, and tells Belinda about his abusive childhood with her as Solange believes she is the reincarnation of a disciple of Jesus Christ and forced her stepson to do things he did not want to. However, Belinda is more accepting of Solange, due to her age and limited physical capabilities.

Thinking the two will share responsibilities, as Belinda is expecting their first child, Norman reluctantly accepts, and Solange now lives in their home. But it doesn’t take long for Solange to take over the house, and begin to not only reshape it, but Belinda’s newborn children too, in her image, while Norman is absent at work. In classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? fashion, Solange begins to torment Belinda to the point where Norman begins to take her stepmother’s side, thinking his wife is physically abusing her and the baby, while Solange is doing it to herself.

At first, it’s Belinda who gaslights Norman into thinking everything will be fine, but as the movie reaches its climax, Norman now believes her stepmother’s gaslighting, when he was the one who told his wife it would be a terrible idea to bring her in their home. This psychological shift is rivetingly portrayed on screen with a career-best turn from Brandy, whose portrayal of Belinda is both thrilling and morbidly comedic. Belinda is excited by the prospect of starting a family with Norman, but as he grows noticeably absent, her turn becomes sharp when she is stuck with someone who not only doesn’t hide her blatant racism towards her, but is also born out of pure spite and hatred towards her stepson.

Hunter also impresses as Solange, completely transforming herself in a performance that’s completely unrecognizable from anything she was previously in, with an accent that seems plucked from Michael J. Anderson in Twin Peaks and adopting a tone that’s never too serious, but never too funny either. You never know when she’s joking or not, which makes it even more disturbing when she makes snarky remarks at the dinner table. It’s often funny, reminding us all of the bitter grandma we may or may not know, but it quickly gets unnerving. And that’s how The Eggers Brothers get under your skin. They do it in such a subtle way that you don’t even realize you’re starting to be discomforted until it’s too late.

It’s a shame, however, that movie never fully develops the relationship between Belinda and Solange past the unsettling point. Yes, it gets fairly petrifying in its final moments (even a comedic needle drop isn’t so funny when you realize exactly how an element that won’t dare be revealed here occurred, even if the final shot brings satisfaction), but one can’t help but feel the core story to be fairly undercooked. The Eggers Brothers attempt to bring as much Biblical imagery as possible to the story, such as a shot of Solange as the reincarnation of The Virgin Mary holding Belinda’s baby as her vision of Jesus Christ, but it feels fairly jarring, because this part, which should be the film’s main focus, is treated as an afterthought.

One scene in particular, in which Solange invites some of her friends in the house, should act as a pivotal point in Belinda’s rivalry with Norman’s stepmother, but is entirely dropped once the scene ends and has no impact on how she will eventually perceive Solange. Belinda’s relationship with Norman is also fairly cyclical, but perhaps that was the point. He can’t be there, because he’s too busy at work. But the dialogues and situations feel frequently the same and don’t develop in intensifying drama, or with a true sense of friction between the two (it also doesn’t help that Burnap feels woefully miscast and barely has any chemistry with the effervescent Brandy). It makes their relationship feel less important when it’s the catalyst of the film’s inciting event.

But even with imperfect character (and thematic) beats, The Front Room remains an impressive feature directorial debut from The Eggers Brothers. Its aesthetic grows darker as the relationship between Belinda and Solange becomes more sinister, while Brandy and Kathryn Hunter give two wholly impressive turns, harkening back to the classic young/old relationships we’d usually see in hagsploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s. It may not be a full-on psycho-biddy picture, but it remains tons of fun nonetheless.

The Front Room is now available to watch in US & Canadian theaters and will be released in UK & Irish cinemas on October 25, 2024.