House of Ashes (PANIC) Collapses Under Pressure of Uneven Storytelling
Title: House of Ashes
First Non-Festival Release: October 28, 2025 (Digital/Streaming Platforms)
Director: Izzy Lee
Writer: Izzy Lee
Runtime: 95 Minutes
Starring: Fayna Sanchez, Vincent Stalba, Mason Conrad
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
This film’s review was written after its screening at the Panic Film Festival in 2025.
With women’s right to bodily autonomy so brazenly threatened in the United States, some people are still blind to the realities faced by these new stringent laws. Many pro-life supporters either do not comprehend the danger that they put real women in, or they simple do not care. The question soon becomes: who is entitled to the right to life?
After the death of her first husband (Mason Conrad) and tragic miscarriage, Mia (Fayna Sanchez) is released from prison after being convicted of her fetus’s death thanks to the new laws surrounding abortion. Confined to house arrest, Mia becomes dependent on her new boyfriend, Marc (Vincent Stalba). Not long after settling in, Mia begins feeling someone, or something, watching her. Soon she discovers the truth is stranger, and even more terrifying, than she imagined.
Low-scares supernatural frightener House of Ashes fails to drum up anything compelling, both story and scare-wise.
A promising setup leads to disappointment with the plodding approach House of Ashes takes to its important story. The introduction of Mia is fraught with hostility as we learn of her conviction. With her entire life destroyed, Mia’s reliance on Marc is not only comforting in the face of a campaign of hatred and institutional violence, it’s also survival. House of Ashes is good at painting just how impossible Mia’s situation feels. Unfortunately, past the first twenty minutes or so, Mia’s story starts to drag when the stalking element gets introduced.
On-the-nose dialogue and a tendency to spell out each reveal, House of Ashes doesn’t trust its audience with its story. Throughout Mia’s ordeal both her conversations with Marc and her own musings feel the need to re-state what’s going on to ensure there’s no doubt. Given the material, it’s an unnecessary decision. There’s nothing too dense or confusing in its story to warrant such handholding. Paired with the pacing and chemistry of the leads, it gets tiresome quickly.
Further complicating the film’s structural issues, its leads lack the chemistry to pull off the film’s twists. Both Fayna Sanchez and Vincent Stalba struggle to carry the weight of the film’s emotions on their shoulders. Sanchez is the more capable of the two, tapping into as much frustration and terror as Mia gets put through the wringer. Stalba’s flat delivery and uncanny facial acting make the ensuing reveals predictable and empty. Together, their relationship feels inauthentic and almost performative, which is an interesting approach given the film’s material but somehow lacking intention.
Getting by mostly on concept alone, House of Ashes successfully adds visual flair to its familiar story. Awash in psychedelic colors and otherworldly fog, the nightmarish visuals serve as more than just visual hooks. Mia’s life has been a nightmare since her wrongful conviction for the death of her fetus along with her husband. Thrust into a world that is not only unsympathetic to her plight but actively furthering it is something straight out of Hell. This visually hazy aesthetic also serves to further the plot point of Mia’s conundrum: is the supernatural real, and this is happening to her, or is she really going crazy?
There’s a good idea of a film behind House of Ashes, one that has interesting things to say about grief and the ways we struggle to let go but it doesn’t appear often. Its political text is invigorating enough in this chaotic period of time, but the execution leaves plenty to be desired. Rough pacing, acting, and dialogue drag the production down in ways it’s hazy and surreal imagery cannot save. House of Ashes isn’t out yet but its explicit commentary and refusal to let its female protagonist down may be enough for you to fall in love with its desire to burn down the foundations of a broken system.
Overall Score? 4/10
