The Haunted House Horror Thriller With A Genre Icon You Can Stream Now
Amid all the gory slasher films of the early 1980s, a handful of good old fashioned ghost stories were projected onto screens across the country to mixed responses and box office successes. The 1981 movie The Nesting is one such tale, a true haunted house picture that leaves a good amount of the horror to the imagination instead of relying on copious amounts of fake blood and guts. The movie also serves as one of the many horror vehicles for screen icon John Carradine, whose decades in the industry were a big payoff in this tale of terror.
Lauren Cochran
The Nesting follows novelist Lauren Cochran, a poor soul who is suffering from a severe bout of agoraphobia. To get away from the busyness of the city, Lauren chooses to rent an isolated mansion in the country. Things get a little strange when the elderly landlord, Col. Lebrun (John Carradine), takes one look at his new tenant and is overcome with fear and suffers from a stroke.
The Nesting gets right into the haunted house trope without much delay. Lauren begins to suffer strange dreams almost immediately, mostly about women from another time being present in the home. Before long, the action in the film becomes violent.
The Violence Escalates
Lauren’s psychiatrist attempts to see her at the property and is murdered. The property’s handyman, Frank, attacks Laura, as does an elderly neighbor named Abner. But during each near-fatal encounter with these violent men, unseen forces work to protect the home’s newest member with dire consequences for those who attempt to do Lauren harm.
Secrets Revealed
The Nesting continues as Lauren begins to ask questions about the home’s history in hopes of finding answers to why she was attacked and who (or what) might be haunting it. The home’s sordid history is at last revealed to her, as is the horrible fate of those who once lived there.
A Slow Burn
As a gothic thriller, The Nesting ticks off a lot of checkmarks. The foreboding atmosphere (mostly shot at the historic Armour-Stiner House in Westchester County, New York) was captured flawlessly as a sense of impending doom hangs heavy over the film and its characters. The film is a slow burn, but a good one, as the plotline takes some twisted moves before Robin discovers her place in the house and how her personal history lured her there.
Stream It Now
GFR SCORE
While The Nesting was a bit lacking in overall screen talent, the performance commanded by veteran actor John Carradine was up to his usual standard of excellence. A long-time western actor, Carradine ventured into the horror genre in 1943 with the starring role in Revenge of the Zombies before moving on to co-star in two Universal horror films, House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945). By the time he died in 1988 he racked up hundreds of screen credits, with many of them forgotten 1970s horror films that warrant views from fans of the genre.
You can stream The Nesting for free with Tubi or rent it On Demand with AppleTV, Google Play, and Prime.
