Passes the Bechdel test

The Night House

Name: The Night House
Released: 2021

2021. Directed by David Bruckner, written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
13 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 4 scenes out of 93.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

Having buried her husband recently, emotionally scarred, grief-stricken high-school teacher Beth returns to the spacious, eerily vacant lake house he built for her in the heart of a gloomy forest. But as pained Beth tries to pick up the pieces, before long, mysterious shadows and blood-curdling reflections on the windows start to taunt her, and suddenly, she finds herself opening boxes, rummaging through the deceased's belongings. And little by little, Beth's intense late-night nightmares become increasingly vivid, taking a toll on her already fragile sanity. Now, pressing questions demand clear answers. Will Beth ever unearth the secret of the night house?

Released: 20 Aug 2021
Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.4 / 10
Metascore: 68 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 19 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Beth 237 lines, woman
Claire 82 lines, woman
Mel 45 lines, man
Madison 31 lines
Parent 19 lines
Gary 16 lines, man
Heather 16 lines, woman
Owen 13 lines, man
Principal 6 lines, woman
Woman 5 lines, woman

Full cast, 21 people

Rebecca Hall as Beth
Sarah Goldberg as Claire
Vondie Curtis-Hall as Mel
Evan Jonigkeit as Owen
Stacy Martin as Madelyne
David Abeles as Gary
Christina Jackson as Heather
Patrick Klein as Bob
Crystal Swann as Principal
Catherine Weidner as Teacher
Laura Austin as Relative
Jacob Garrett White as Clerk
Samantha Buck as Becky
Lydia Hand as Woman in Pink
Lea Enslin as Woman in White
Amy Zubieta as Woman in Green
Allie McCulloch as Woman in Red
Andy Rich as Collaborator (uncredited)
Amber Anne as Bridesmaid / Bar Patron (uncredited)
Derek M. Puma as Bar Patron (uncredited)
Dannielle Rose as Teacher (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 93

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 2	0	0
3 to 4	0	0
5 to 6	0	0
7 to 8	4	0
9 to 10	0	0
11 to 12	0	0
13 to 14	0	0
15 to 16	0	0
17 to 18	0	0
19 to 20	0	0
21 to 22	32	0
23 to 24	10	10
25 to 26	7	1
27 to 28	0	0
29 to 30	0	0
31 to 32	3	0
33 to 34	0	0
35 to 36	0	0
37 to 38	30	0
39 to 40	93	16
41 to 42	4	0
43 to 44	5	0
45 to 46	14	19
47 to 48	0	0
49 to 50	0	0
51 to 52	11	11
53 to 54	1	0
55 to 56	20	0
57 to 58	40	1
59 to 60	5	0
61 to 62	15	0
63 to 64	0	0
65 to 66	1	2
67 to 68	1	0
69 to 70	2	0
71 to 72	1	0
73 to 74	2	0
75 to 76	1	0
77 to 78	4	0
79 to 80	11	0
81 to 82	9	10
83 to 84	1	0
85 to 86	2	1
87 to 88	2	1
89 to 90	11	5
91 to 92	4	0
93 to 93	6	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

PRINCIPAL: So what we’re looking at here is the end of course test scores for math. I’m gonna pick on the math department because you can see the bigge… BETH: Sorry. PRINCIPAL: Pink is this year. So. WHAT HAPPENED?!

CLAIRE: Jesus Christ. HEATHER: Hey, are you gonna read that book she gave us?

CLAIRE: Tallllllk. Sloooooow. BETH: I’m fine.

BETH: When your body’s awake but your mind isn’t. HEATHER: Wouldn’t that be sleepwalking? BETH: Sure. Sleepwalking. Could something like that be contagious?

BETH: Shit. Let me do the math. BETH: 13 years? 14? No, 14. Cause this next one would have been fifteen. HEATHER: Wow, you married young. BETH: Little bit.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 82 are women's.

352 lines from women, 77 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

13 women and 7 men in the cast. 5 women and 4 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 2 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 80% of the words (3,075), men 20% (770). Women have 82% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 1 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 29% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: David Bruckner (man)
Written by: Ben Collins (man), Luke Piotrowski (man)
Produced by: David S. Goyer (man), Keith Levine (man), John Zois (gender not listed)
Shot by: Elisha Christian (man)
Edited by: David Marks (man)
Music by: Ben Lovett (man)
Production design by: Kathrin Eder (woman)
Costumes by: Samantha Hawkins (woman)
Cast by: Eric Souliere (man)