Review: 'The Night House' is an effective horror thriller, relying on star Rebecca Hall to provide the real chills

A good actor can be the difference between a run-of-the-mill horror thriller and something that generates some real fear — and Rebecca Hall is a very good actor, and the reason “The Night House” is sometimes as genuinely unsettling as it is.

Hall plays Beth, a schoolteacher just starting to reckon with the recent death of her husband, Owen (Evan Jonigkeit). She rattles around the lakeside home they shared in upstate New York — the home he, an architect, designed and built — drinking brandy and sorting through his belongings. She’s trying to make sense of why Owen killed himself, because the cryptic note he left doesn’t explain much.

Amid his architectural plans, Beth finds sketches of another dwelling — a mirror image of their home. She sees a light across the lake and decides to explore, against the advice of the kindly old neighbor, Mel (Vondie Curtis-Hall). And Beth finds photos on Owen’s phone, leading her to an encounter with a woman, Madelyne (Stacy Martin), who knows something about Owen that upends what Beth thought she knew about her husband.

Writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski serve up an economical script that carefully plants ideas — from Beth’s friendship with fellow teacher Claire (Sarah Goldberg) to Beth’s near-death experience in high school — that pay off as the story progresses. Director David Bruckner, who contributed to the horror anthologies “V/H/S” and “Southbound,” polishes the story to a glow, creating a slick thriller that builds its fear steadily and convincingly.

The success of “The Night House” in creating that terror rests largely with Hall, whose resumé covers both big-budget action movies (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Iron Man 3”) and challenging indie dramas (“Christine,” “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women”). Hall’s Beth is no “scream queen” — the actor conveys the fear that builds in Beth as she uncovers Owen’s dark secrets, but that fear motivates her to action rather than paralyzes her. Hall also proves that an actor who can play pretend can create a more chilling special effect than a bank of computers.

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‘The Night House’

★★★

Opens Friday, August 20, in theaters. Rated R for some violence/disturbing images, and language including some sexual references. Running time: 108 minutes.