Riseborough’s performance stands out given how much of “Here Before” depends on our willingness to be led to the movie’s combustive finale. When Riseborough looks at Dornan’s character, Laura becomes defined by the sort of inviting open-ness that makes you want to take another look at Megan. Not just to see what exactly is going on with this kid, but to get a sense of how Megan’s inspired Laura’s curious emotional attachment.
Towards the end of the movie, Riseborough’s emotions seems more and more inaccessible. Her face broadcasts less information to us, or anyone else outside of her character’s head. That ambiguity can be eerie, as in the brief but evocative sequence where we see Riseborough’s eyes in extreme close-up before she drives straight back to Marie’s home. Riseborough’s hardened expression is the emotional foundation for the movie’s climax, so if it doesn’t do much for you, you might not feel properly run over at the very end.
You might also find yourself about half-invested and half-underwhelmed by the movie’s alternatively hyper-pressurized and thin atmosphere. Even a surreal dream sequence leaves one feeling that what we’re looking at simultaneously tells us too much and not enough about what Laura’s going through, given its focus on unnerving children’s music and a brief, but memorably appearance by Dornan. I wonder if it’s possible to get more out of this movie if you go into it knowing that it’s less about emotional release and more about grief as an elusive and only partly sensible process.
It’s hard to know what else “Here Before” would have needed to work on its own terms, especially since, as genre devotees know, a good horror movie doesn’t need to meet any prefab criteria in order to be good. There’s certainly enough craft, soul, and intelligence on display to make Gregg’s movie worth a look. There’s also a few too many scenes that only succeed at repeating its evident fascination with grief as a personal and therefore only partly communicable experience. Sometimes the articulation of the writing on the wall—just above the coat-hook—doesn't matter as much as how much scrutiny it can stand up to.
Now playing in theaters and available on VOD on February 15th.
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