[Film Review] The World We Knew (2020)

Ghosts are the near-perfect manifestations of past sins and traumas haunting an individual’s present and placing their future under question. The World We Knew (2020) settles itself in a deserted safe house where six men are waiting to hear how their botched robbery will impact their next step.

The current stress of the situation resurrects past conflicts of each individual’s past as they begin to experience hauntings within the house. For a low-budget film, the imagery is rich, and the dialogue holds complex character dynamics that inform well the tension held within their space. However, the briefness of the film (running an hour and 18 minutes) could have been extended for the film to hit home the ghostly aspect it seemingly plants the seed for. Without direct dialogue speculating that they are being haunted it seems more like a psychological thriller exploring how past guilts inform their threatened sanity rather than a ghost. Furthermore, it veers into using repetitive racial stereotypes held in horror and psychological thriller films where the more violent robber, the person who is first killed off or who becomes victim to the haunting is the only Black male character. The tension between the male robbers, nevertheless, sheds light on the pressures of manhood tied to their past and motivation around the robbery. 

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This film focuses more on character narrative than plot – it is the psyche of the characters that motivates the narrative rather than necessarily external forces. This is a creative blend that makes it hard to distinguish if the haunting in the film really stems from an external force in the house or within themselves. The haunting from their pasts is very clouded around moments of manhood that influence the tension and anxiety amongst them. Oftentimes with hauntings in the film the focus is on women or children being direct victims of the haunting and their male counterparts struggle internally with not being able to control how their family is impacted by the ghost.

Or if they are haunted/possessed they aim to cause harm to their loved ones. Depicting robbers being haunted shows the complex layering of them not being ‘innocently’ haunted by malicious or harmful ghosts but their own pasts fuel the justification of haunting in some ways. Therefore, the haunting in this film is not only uniquely presenting a haunting of the male mind and body but how those with a past which is now haunted position the audience to question whether or not such a supernatural force is justified. 

Overall, this film uniquely positions masculinity, haunting, and guilt at the forefront of motivation of plot development that makes it enticing to watch just for this unpacking of the characters’ psyche. However, it leaves the audience wanting more via plot and supernatural elements and themes that I believe would have made the film more well-rounded. Nevertheless, the film holds a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating because of the said unique plot, character development, and nostalgia towards similar films that hold masculinity themes and tensions like Reservoir Dogs (1992). If for the aesthetic alone this film will continue to intrigue a lot of viewing audiences and despite the mixed reviews, the ability to pull off a complex narrative with a small budget is well worth watching. 

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