The Front Room review – Brandy Norwood shines in muddled camp horror

The actor-singer returns to horror as a new mother confronted with the hell of living with her creepy and boundary-crossing mother-in-law Like the long-outdated wallpaper decorating its titular parlor, The Front Room, the debut feature from twin brothers Max and Sam Eggers (siblings to Robert, director of The Witch, The Northman and the upcoming Nosferatu), is a strange presence, at once bright, odd and menacing. Though billed as a psychological, so-called “elevated” horror film in the vein of Hereditary and Talk To Me (also from A24, as trailers note), The Front Room immediately aims for something more campy and comic; in a pre-taped message played before the screening I attended, the film’s star Brandy Norwood pitched it as a satisfying revenge flick and urged audiences to “please get loud” in the theater. The Front Room would, and certainly should, attract attention based on Norwood alone, in her first significant horror role since 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. It is an underwhelming mixed bag of tricks, but Norwood is never less than compelling as Belinda, a heavily pregnant anthropology professor who routinely endures disrespect – from her apathetic students, patronizing administration and greedy academic department – with a soft smile and steel spine. But her capacity for bullshit gets tested when her lawyer husband Norman (a handsome yet rather flat Andrew Burnap) is contacted by his supremely religious and overbearing stepmother Solange (Kathryn Hunter), essentially turning Belinda into an adjunct in her own life.