The Sonata Movie: Why Fans of Netflix’s The Haunting Might Like It

I’ve been meaning to check out Crackle ever since they sent me info about the Ghostbusters documentary, Cleanin’ Up the Town. I wasn’t in the mood for a documentary when I finally sat down to check them out, but I was in the mood for something scary. Or hopefully scary. That’s when I remembered The Sonata movie.

I had high hopes it wasn’t just marketing fluff when Philippe Guelton, the president of Crackle Plus, described it as “well-crafted.” Regardless of genre, those kind of movies are hard to find.

It probably wasn’t fair of me to hope The Sonata would compare to The Haunting of Hill House, which was a well-crafted adaptation of a book by Shirley Jackson. Not only because it wasn’t an adaptation of a book, but also because it was a movie, not a series.

But after watching the trailer it was in my head the two looked similar. Was I far off?

Not really. The Sonata is not pitch-perfect as far as horror movies go, but it does hit several high notes. Not that I screamed, but it did cause me to flinch a few times and certain scenes gave me goosebumps akin to the ones The Haunting of Hill House gave me in a couple of places too.

The Trailer

Well-Crafted Creepiness

First of all, I know nothing about music and The Sonata movie was music-centric. At first glance that didn’t interest me, but the producers took into account that not all viewers would be familiar with classical music –or even fans of it.

Turns out, I didn’t need to know anything. They didn’t get too technical with weaving the music aspects into the plot, and overall the storyline was easy to follow.

In a nutshell, it’s about a famous, eccentric, reclusive composer named Richard Marlowe (played by Rutger Hauer in one of his last movies before he died) who sets himself on fire after finishing his masterpiece and bequeaths his massive French estate to his estranged daughter.

His daughter, Rose (played by Freya Tingley), goes to check out her new digs and quickly has to wonder, “Have I inherited a haunted house?”

In addition to weird things happening –like a clock case opening on its own and a shadow appearing under the crack in the bathroom door as the handle turns while she’s in the tub– she also suffers nightmares full of disturbing images like the creepy statues in the garden moving and pointing to…what? Who knows? Something in the distance…

With the help of her manager, Charles (played by Simon Abkarian), Rose finds herself decoding the cryptic symbols on her father’s composition in order to play it. His masterpiece holds keys to a secret, sadistic, Devil-worshiping life he was leading.

But the music has an odd effect on Charles, who Rose finds herself battling against at the end too.

Overall

I wasn’t nuts about the ending because the FX at the very end were a bit cheesy. Before that they’d been fine, but the end seemed a little cartoonish.

I’m also generally not a huge fan of horror movies involving Devil worshiping, because I generally find that more of a silly trope than a scary one.

However, even though there are Devil aspects to this one, it felt more like a haunted house movie and I liked the scares, including the creepy kids, who weren’t there just for effect but were a part of the plot.

As I watched I couldn’t help but think of my friend, Sheila, who was once an opera singer and loves music as well as horror movies. I was all set to recommend this movie to her, but she’s not a fan of kids being killed, which is where this movie ends up. Marlowe needs their lives to make the magic in his music work.

Not that you see the kids being killed, but you do hear them being tortured. And, of course, you see their creepy white-eyed ghosts.

Sheila is sort of my barometer for the rating I’d give The Sonata movie. I’d still recommend it to her, but with the warning there are references to children being killed.

Overall the acting is good, it is a creepy haunted house movie along the lines of The Haunting of Hill House, and it did have a well-crafted plot, as well as a creepy score and visual imagery. Which is why it earns a solid three out of five skulls from me.

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