House of Good and Evil

House of Good and Evil is a 2013 American psychological thriller film directed by David Mun and written by Blu de Golyer. It stars Rachel Marie Lewis and Christian Oliver as a married couple who, after a miscarriage caused by the husband physically assaulting his wife during her pregnancy, decide to start over again by moving to a large, rural house without electricity or phone service. It was shot in Floyd County, Virginia, and initially screened there in June 2013.

Maggie Conley has a miscarriage after an argument with her husband Chris turns physical. To save their marriage, they move to a large house in rural Virginia. There, they are met by real estate agent Rob Bradley, who explains that the house has been converted into a duplex. A quiet, elderly couple, the Andersons, rent the other half of the house. As constant storms have made public utilities prohibitively expensive, Bradley suggests that they use cell phones and a generator. After showing them the house, Bradley comes upon a locked door and offers to return in a week with the key. Later, Chris refuses Maggie's offer to start the generator and insists on doing it himself. That night, Chris celebrates with mixed alcoholic drinks. Annoyed that he has resumed drinking, Maggie declines to join him in bed.

Maggie has a nightmare about the locked room involving vines connecting to her umbilical cord, and, after Chris drives into town for supplies, she forces her way into the room. There, she hears a loud ringing from an rotary-style telephone. She is frustrated when Chris reacts skeptically to her account. While they take a walk, he points out that the telephone lines are still down, and Maggie angrily accuses him of not supporting her. Tensions are further raised when Chris announces that he must leave the house for several days. A firefighter, Chris explains that late fires have started in the nearby forest. Because of the poor cell reception, Maggie is forced to travel to a clearing in order to use her cell phone but is continually frightened away by strange noises in the trees. Maggie becomes increasingly agitated as she misses Chris' daily phone calls and continues to hear ringing from the Andersons' house.

Maggies makes several unsuccessful attempts to meet the Andersons, only to meet Mr. Anderson one night after the generator stalls. Dressed in a nightgown and feeling vulnerable, she does not answer his double entendres as he restarts it for her. After she overhears Mrs. Anderson talking on the phone, she breaks into the Andersons' house; after she apologizes, the two chat. Mrs. Anderson says that her husband is also a firefighter, though it is only a desk job due to his age and the lack of any recent fires. Already uncomfortable due to the previous revelation, Maggie leaves when her life and Mrs. Anderson's turn out to increasingly mirror each other. Later, as the two take a walk together, Mrs. Anderson reveals that her husband beats her.