There will be spoilers here, but I'll try and keep them as light as possible. I'll put the identity of the killer in a spoiler tag that you will have to click to reveal, so that's on you.
This will be longer than normal, but I think it's an interesting topic.
I've read some articles recently about how much Netflix has struggled with making good content. Sure, they have their hit shows like Black Mirror, The Witcher, Stranger Things, Tiger King, Ozark, and some animated ones, but for every hit there's a dozen failures and their film division really, really struggles to make anything good. I think Spencer Confidential is probably their most successful film, in terms of, not being considered a mess by critics and the public? I should mention that the hit shows they have are typically greenlit and other companies make them, NOT Netflix, which means their best content are not projects Netflix directly influences.
The biggest criticism of Netflix has been their strategy of going "all in" on the woke movement...with Dave Chapelle and Bill Burr being the exceptions. (Although, perhaps the cancelling of Bill Burr's realistic depiction of life in the 70s "F is for Family" is due to woke Netflix folks not liking him?) I want to point out here that I don't think it's Netflix directly telling properties to be woke, but rather the people they are hiring. I'm guessing the connections within Netflix's rolodex are farther to the extreme left than other streamers'.
Anyway, why am I getting into all of this? Because There's Someone Inside Your House is a Netflix movie and it is firmly enveloped in the woke movement.
This film is based on a YA novel. FYI, they changed characters, fates, backgrounds, and motivations from the book for this movie. The book is not woke. In fact, the killer is not only different, but their motivation is completely different and their victims do not have "dark secrets". The book sounds like it is much better than this movie.
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Onto the film...
A murder takes place in a small community where the murder victim's deepest, darkest secret is also revealed to the entire community right after they are murdered. Now it's up to a "group of misfits" (that is legit in the Netflix description) to save the day as more murders are committed and all are tied to the high school.
The group of misfits are:
-A light skinned black girl with a dark secret, but that secret isn't about her dating Ollie, a CIS white guy, who everyone suspects is the murderer.
-Her darker skinned female best friend has no secret because she's completely irrelevant to the plot.
-There's the Latino boy who has a dark secret that is a plot hole.
-There's the white person that is trans (I couldn't tell which way. I think girl --> boy?). Incidentally, this character has NO role at all in the movie. None. They are simply there for inclusion and so we can get a single scene where someone, a white person of course, shows off their ignorance about trans issues.
-The straight CIS white guy whose father happens to be the richest person in the area, but somehow his kid is not popular...
-There is also the gay white guy that plays football, but because he's out the team doesn't want anything to do with him, but the misfits also mostly exclude him because he's a jock. Bit of a conflicting message there, BUT if intended to point out that even those who are maligned can also act in the same manner, then I support that message.
Now let me discuss the best parts of the movie:
-The opening scene is well done if a bit unrealistic. The scene is an homage to Scream, but not a ripoff. It is an excellent, excellent setup for the movie and really sets a tone that, unfortunately, the rest of the movie cannot match.
-The killer's mask is pretty awesome. I LOVE every bit of the concept and I'm pretty pissed it got wasted here. The entire opening credits are all about the mask(s) so it's not a secret or something that gets revealed slowly. I wouldn't say it is unique, but it's usage is...
The problem with the movie is that it's pretty boring, predictable, depends on people being really stupid or acting exactly as the killer predicts, and there's a lot of questionable technology after that opening scene. Not to mention the woke messaging. So let's address those first:
You probably already know who the killer is......and the protagonist's final speech to the killer is hilariously on message It is so cringy woke and racist. It completely ripped me out of the film as it's about as subtle as a sledgehammer.
And can you guess the dark secrets of the murder victims and the hero?
This movie would be included in any court case against Hollywood as proof that their meddling of existing IPs is usually a disaster. The book is apparently good, but this movie is not. They took a really cool mask concept for a slasher film and ruined it on what is essentially a 90 minute political message.
Even the one cop they show is painted as a possible suspect because "the upcoming election has a ballot initiative to abolish the police and he'd be out of a job".
This movie is well acted, decently directed, poorly lit, and scored well, but the fucking political horseshit absolutely drags it down. It goes from potentially good slasher film through the first five minutes to boring propaganda piece for the rest of the movie.
The worst part of wasting that cool mask concept is that they could have made a great movie and still gotten in their propaganda, but they couldn't help themselves and had to put the propaganda at the front of the stage instead of at the back.