People have different tastes, including in the kinds of films they enjoy, and I want to acknowledge that upfront. Although I don’t typically watch horror movies, particularly psychological horror, I can still recognize craft, talent, and thoughtful filmmaking when I see it. I offer this disclosure because my 4-star rating comes from someone outside the genre’s usual audience. If your preferences often align with mine, please keep in mind that this genre is not part of my regular viewing.
The film’s official synopsis captures its premise best:
“Raya’s life has been turned upside down since she began caring for her bedridden husband. Tormented by relentless nightmares each night, and each morning, she wakes lost and disoriented in shallow graves in the woods, with no memory of how she got there or how to get home. Then, the next night, it happens again – visions of tortured women—their whispers growing louder, their presence bleeding into her waking life. As supernatural forces close in and the boundary between dream and reality shatters, she uncovers a chilling secret buried within the woods—and within herself. The women from her nightmares are no longer just dreams. And when she wakes in the deepest grave yet, she knows exactly what she must do.”
During the pandemic, Paul Bickel and Raya Miles relocated to their home in Big Bear Lake rather than remain in Los Angeles. With time, limited resources, and the natural environment around them, they developed Our Happy Place. The production faced challenges ranging from cast isolation to filming scenes while acting in them, working with sparse special-effects equipment, and creatively engineering solutions, including using video calls for scenes between Raya, Raya Miles, and Amy, Tracie Thoms. As restrictions eased, additional scenes with more cast members were completed, followed by editing, scoring, and the full post-production process. The result is a thoughtful and skillfully crafted psychological horror film.
The film uses multiple visual styles to create tension and immersion: home-video-style flashbacks, intimate framing that puts viewers directly in unsettling moments, and effective lighting cues that signal shifts in time, season, and memory. Streaks of orange light in certain flashbacks subtly reinforce the return of traumatic recollections. These choices keep viewers engaged and uneasy in the best way.
David Hernandez’s score is a standout element. He leans into emotional storytelling and tension-building, creating musical cues that enhance the film’s psychological layers. The effect is reminiscent of the cultural impact of the Jaws theme, augmented, of course, by contemporary sound design and technology.
Editing by Jim Holdridge, with additional polish from Producer David Ho and Paul Bickel, results in a film with well-managed pacing. It accelerates during high-tension sequences, slows appropriately for character-driven moments, and includes brief touches of humor that offer relief without breaking the overall mood.
Finally, the performances, particularly Raya Miles’, who carries the majority of the film alone, deserve recognition. In a post-pandemic world more attuned to the emotional demands of isolation, her ability to anchor the story with depth and relatability is impressive. Her performance is reminiscent of Willem Dafoe’s in Inside, in that it sustains viewer investment with minimal direct interaction. Tracie Thoms adds warmth, grounding, and well-timed humor that reinforce Raya’s humanity and the passage of time, echoing the lived experiences many had during lockdown.
For fans of psychological horror, and for aspiring filmmakers interested in how to create a deeply personal, resourceful, and emotionally resonant film—Our Happy Place is well worth watching.
Director: Paul Bickel
Cast: Rya Miles, Paul Bickel, Tracie Thoms, Eugen Byrd
Selig Rating: 4 stars
Runtime: 1h 30m
Release Date: December 7,2024
Genre(s): Psychological Horror
Trailer: Our Happy Place Trailer
The Selig Rating Scale:
5 Stars – Excellent movie/show, well worth the time and price.
4 Stars – Good movie/show
3 Stars – OK movie/show
2 Stars – Well, there was nothing else…
1 Star – Total waste of time.