The only reason I watched “You Should Have Left” was because Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried ‘baconed’, ahem…beckoned from its poster. The plot is simple enough—A guy (played by Kevin Bacon) who’s got a dark past and who’s trying to get PAST that (See what I did there? Clever joke) by means of journaling, moves into a house in the middle of nowhere with his family, comprising of his slightly younger wife (not to be confused with his daughter) played by Amanda Seyfried and his daughter (Avery Essex) and then a bunch of spooky things happen. Some of which might be tied-in with his past.
The movie, based on a novella by the same name, sticks too close to the ‘done to death with’ horror tropes in the first half, drags a tad but more than makes up for it with some chilling twists in the second half. It also uses a relatively lesser known horror movie trope- ‘The flaw in architectural design’. Ooh, spooky! Jokes aside, I wish it had been more consistent because it feels like I’ve watched two different movies strung together, except the first one was dreary and made me want to pause and just not watch more, but the second one was well-paced and engaging, if not entirely terrifying.
There are a few stand-out scenes and one of them for me would be the scene in the second half where both father and daughter try to make it out of the haunted house and it’s rather surreal and a total ‘wtf moment’. And if you’re a fan of the movie “1408,” it also gives off a lot of “1408” vibes too. I also liked the use of some light & witty humor in the right amounts, especially during heightened or tense moments.
Kevin Bacon does justice to the disturbed dad role he was obviously born to play. He’s played so many variations of the disturbed character by now, he’s become a master at it, albeit a tad hammy at times. It’s not his best horror performance though and that honor will solely belong to his disturbed yuppie character from the original “Flatliners” by the late Joel Schumacher. The child actor Avery Essex shows much promise and ably supports Bacon. Amanda Seyfried sleepwalks through a role that doesn’t fit the plot, nor adds much to the proceedings and also disappears in the second half, so you don’t even miss her much. And when she does return, you don’t care much for her, which is sad because I really do like Amanda Seyfried as an actress & she usually performs well in horror flicks (one of the reasons I watched this in the first place).
Although the plot is a tad predictable and can’t shake off its reliance on tropes mostly in the first half, it helps that there is ample good camera work and occasionally spooky use of the following elements, namely- shadows, walls, mirrors, dreams and the mist. It also helps that the locations are visually appealing and it makes me want to go live in a haunted house in the Welsh countryside right this instant. There aren’t too many annoying subplots & there’s just the right amount of supporting characters too, some of whom like the creepy grocer are memorable and helpful and others who could’ve been done away with since they just serve the purpose of repeating the title time and again to the lead character in a creepy manner (saying/writing “You Should Have Left” to Kevin Bacon once is more than enough. No need to be repetitive about it. We get it, creepy old lady outside grocery shop).
“You Should Have Left” could’ve been a lot more if it had just not circled back to being generic. Although I didn’t love it entirely because it’s equal parts intriguing, equal parts listless and boring and there are parts of it which could use tweaking, I don’t hate it entirely either. It’s criminally hard to hate on a Kevin Bacon movie anyway, so why bother? Good enough for a one time watch even during the daytime and the ending is a good enough pay-off.
