House of Chains (2022)

One of our favorite actresses, Mena Suvari, stars as Laura McGrath in a film that could be titled “The Little House of Horrors.”

The film is a graphic account of child abuse by a monster named Tye McGrath, who plucked the drug addicted Laura off the streets and molded her into his consort whose babies he would torment as the children grew up in a house that was intended to be walled off to the rest of the world for the kids.

It was never made clear how Tye could have thoroughly indoctrinated Laura, who was obviously capable of clear thinking and demonstrably horrified by his physical abuse of the children. The brief flashback sequence of Tye’s first meeting with Laura was too brief and required greater development to understand how Laura fell under Tye’s complete control.

To the filmmakers’ credit, there was a disclaimer at the beginning about the forthcoming violence to be inflicted on the children. But for some viewers, the unspeakable atrocities that are the subject of this film may be too much to endure for ninety minutes.

Suvari and the cast were excellent, and there is no doubt that the subject matter raised is important. The abuse of children in any form, be it by a zealot like Tye or anyone in the role of a parent, is intolerable in a civilized world.