Another great reasoning for the phrase to not take anything in horror literally as it's very rewarding to see this as the allegory for losing someone to suicide that it is. It can be taken literally and Owen's murders can be real, but it works better as the embodiment of lust literally being killed by him. Even as Beth is constantly told by Claire, she should stop digging into his life because everyone has secrets. All she found that could be verified were the photos of the women on his phone that looked similar to her, which really is what started her snowballing descent towards the end. I don't think so much attention would be called to the fact that everyone has secrets and it's best to leave it be if it wasn't somewhat significant. In addition to that, Beth is constantly drinking, leaving the option open that in her drunken state the plot of the movie occurred as some sort of coping hallucination. Thinking this premise is predictable and has been done before is possible but it does discount the fact that Rebecca Hall does portray someone going through it in such an honest way that she is worth seeing the movie for, and there's some pretty effective scary moments to top off the subtext and atmospheric cinematography.
Review of The Night House
