The People Before review – house holds terrible secrets in efficient rural-set thriller

This slowburn psychological thriller has come up with an interesting slant on the house-with-a-terrible-secret storyline. Based on a novel by the Guardian’s books editor Charlotte Northedge, it’s the story of Jess (Liz White), a charity fundraiser who’s swapped east London for Suffolk, buying a country pile with her husband Pete (Ray Fearon). The move is a fresh start for their marriage, but inevitably the couple’s problems follow them. And Jess’s identity, put on hold by a career break and motherhood, seems to unravel in unfamiliar surroundings, giving the movie an unsettling atmosphere.

The house is a fixer upper. So when Pete leaves to catch the six o’clock train to London, Jess’s job, after dropping their son Archie off at primary school, is to manage the building work (there is a vague plan for holiday lets on the grounds). But nothing is going to plan, beginning with the discovery of the dreaded Japanese knotweed in the garden. There’s worse danger lurking in the house, which predictably turns out to have a terrible past, which might explain why the locals are so unfriendly. Jess makes only one new friend in town, brooding local artist Eve (Imelda May). Archie is becoming worryingly withdrawn.

It’s an efficient thriller, with a good idea up its sleeve. White’s performance as Jess adds psychological plausibility to the idea that the problems are all in her head. But the suspicious characters reek from the get-go, a dead giveaway to the twist coming at the end, draining away suspense. It’s a movie that’s not quite claustrophobic enough and never quite spine-tingling enough, plus there’s a bit of a fumble of the ending.

• The People Before is in cinemas now.