House of Ashes is Izzy Lee’s long-awaited first feature after a career of short films. Lee decided to stop waiting for an opportunity to make a full-length movie and crowdfunded the money to finally get her foot in the door. The filmmaker’s energy is on full display in the opening moments of this project, which is possibly the most radical shot at this country’s need to punish people with uteruses.
Lee opens House of Ashes with Mia (Fayna Sanchez) having a miscarriage as her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. Unlike other movies we have seen this year about bodily autonomy that are afraid to use words to describe reproductive health, this film tells us what is happening as we watch it play out. We then see that Mia lives in a world where women are punished for miscarriages. She is put on house arrest, and Probation Officer Davis (Lee Boxleitner) torments her and calls her a murderer every time he is on screen. We also find out Mia now lives with her friend Marc (Vincent Stalba), who seems to be the only person on her side. After all, she is the first woman to be tried for having a miscarriage in her town.
The opening of House of Ashes is the most effective part for me. It is what made me lean forward and gave me high hopes for where this movie was going. However, it quickly settles into a chamber piece where the suspicious love interest is the culprit. Granted, he moves in weird ways, and enough ashes get eaten that it is difficult to not feel gross. It is sadly just never as interesting as the idea of a woman being tried for something she had no control over and being accused of murdering her husband. We get a few glimpses of people treating her like a monster via the Probation Officer and Lexi ShokToks (Laura Dromerick) an influencer with big TMZ energy. Still, we definitely leave the more interesting thread for whatever Marc’s deal is.
The script penned by Lee and Steve Johanson leaves us with a lot of questions while zipping towards its ending. It also leaves a lot of things unresolved. For instance, Marc secretly slips Mia drugs, after she refuses them and reminds him that her probation officer is looking for a reason to put her in prison. So, we would assume we have not seen the last of Officer Davis, but we are wrong. He is never seen again. The drugs are just another confirmation that Mia’s real danger is her new partner. We also get a lot of supernatural occurrences in this home that we attribute to the recently dead husband. However, we are unsure if this is just Mia’s new normal or if the spirit can move on now that Marc is no longer in the home.
Most of the questions, comments, and concerns arise from the script. The post-screening Q&A gave the audience a little insight into how the film was made. Lee explained that even finding a location was challenging, which is why this intimate story was forced to fit into this huge house. This clears up some questionable blocking in a few scenes and makes it easy to chalk it up to one of the many battles indie filmmakers face. House of Ashes is a labor of love, and I implore you to see all the names of people who donated in the credits. It is also Lee’s first feature. She had to wear multiple hats as she pushed her way through a door typically reserved exclusively for male filmmakers.
While House of Ashes is a bit unpolished, we have to celebrate a writer-director unafraid to really get into the nitty-gritty of reproductive health in the genre. As someone tired of movies about abortion that never use the word, and movies that almost take aim at the patriarchy before quietly changing course, this opening and this ending feel like a breath of fresh air. I look forward to seeing what Lee does with a bigger budget and more resources. Because I am here for filmmakers who understand the importance of being deliberate with their political stances. Hopefully, it will inspire more filmmakers to stop politely tiptoeing around reproductive health issues and actually get into it in their own projects. Fingers crossed anyway.
House of Ashes had its World Premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on October 19th, 2024.
