Britflix: The Seasoning House

The Seasoning House is a grim and depressing horror-thriller that was the directional debut of Paul Hyett.

In a war-torn Eastern European nation a group of young women are forced into sex slavery. One of these girls is Angel (Rosie Day) who escapes the regular raping due to her deafness and facial birthmark. But Angel has to act as a caretaker which includes drugging the girls and putting make-up on them. In this hell Angel is befriended by one girl who knows sign-language (Dominque Provost-Chalkley) and becomes a favourite of Viktor (Kevin Howarth) – the operator of the brothel.

The Seasoning House is a well-made film that both works to its benefit and detriment. Hyett is a director with technical ability and his debut gets the intended reactions of shock and repulsion. Scenes of women being abused and drugged were horrific and Hyett and his team managed to give the film a downbeat look through the cinematography, set design, and costumes – The Seasoning House was so well done that I didn’t realise that it was filmed in London. Hyett started his career as a make-up artist and the violence in the film was brought to life because of it.

However, due the film being so well done that it is really hard to watch. The film dealt with sensitive subject matter involving war crimes and sex slavery. Hyett was unflinching in his approach when looking at this.

The other issue with the film is it has a lack of story – even for 90 minutes. It really should have been a short film. The Seasoning House spends a long time showing Angel’s daily life and befriending Vanya. The plot doesn’t actually kick in until half-way through the runtime and when Angel does escape the brothel Hyett and his writers don’t know where to take the story. The film was met with a mixed critical reaction – horror fans loved it but critics were less receptive and on IMDB The Seasoning House has a 6.1 rating which is a fair score.

The greatest virtue of the film was the acting, particularly from Rosie Day. Day has been acting since she was a child and she must have been 16 or 17 when she was cast in The Seasoning House. It was a challenging role for any actress due to having the play the character as a deaf-mute and a traumatised young woman who was suffering from the scars of a war crime and having to be a part of the system of oppression. Day clearly has a good working relationship with Hyett, she had a supporting role in his follow-up Howl and she’s set to appear in his next film, Peripheral.

Provost-Chalkley has also had success after The Seasoning House – having a major role in Wynonna Earp and appearing in an episode of Twelve Monkeys. Hyett and his casting director, Manuel Puro, clearly have an eye for talent.

Hyett is a director with a lot of potential, he has the talent and The Seasoning House is a great showcase for people in front of and behind the camera. But due to The Seasoning House‘s subject manner and the lack of story it is a film that could only be seen once.