You Should Have Left review

Disclaimer: The Fandads were provided with a digital copy of You Should Have Left in exchange for a review. All thoughts, opinions, and fear of old houses are our own. 

When I first saw the commercials for You Should Have Left it reminded me of the book House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. The idea that the house was bigger inside than it was outside intrigued me and I thought this was a film adaptation of that book. Sadly, that was the only similarity with the book and the movie was completely not what I expected.
You Should Have Left follows Kevin Bacon and his movie star wife, played by Amanda Seyfried as they leave the city to a tiny town to get away from everything. Bacon's character has a past that he is trying to escape and that is one of the plot points of the movie. While the movie describes itself as a "mind-bending psychological thriller" it feels more like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

The story runs really slow and once it picks up it tries to make sense of what you were watching the entire time. Although the movie is based on a novel by Daniel Kehlmann, it feels like the story is being created as it moves along. I do love watching horror films, but this movie did not pull me in from the beginning to care about Kevin Bacon's character. As for the big reveal, it felt more like an "okay" but not a "wow" moment.

Final Thoughts: If you are looking for a good horror/psychological thriller with Kevin Bacon I would suggest Stir of Echos. If you want to see something more family-friendly maybe Tremors is the movie you can see with your children.

Kid-Friendly: No. As I stated before the pace of the story is slow and it might not keep their attention. There is nudity and sexual situations in the film. This might be suitable for older children, say 15 and up.

Violence: There are some disturbing images in the movie that might not be suitable for younger children.

The mind-bending psychological thriller, YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT, from writer/director David Koepp (Stir of Echoes), is now available to own on Digital and DVD from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Kevin Bacon (Patriots Day, Hollow Man) and Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Les Misérables) star in this terrifying tale where a father fights to save his family from a sinister force that demands a reckoning for secrets of the past based on the novel from prize-winning German literary sensation, Daniel Kehlmann. Produced by the grandmaster of terror Jason Blum (The Invisible Man, Halloween, Split, Us), the dark and unsettling film is hailed as “a surreal labyrinth from which there is no escape” (Fred Topel, SHOWBIZ CHEAT SHEET). Navigate the "clever maze of terror and thrills" (Brandon Davis, COMICBOOK.COM) in YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT for your next scary movie night!