I’ve been in documentary mode after watching the incredible Icarus a few days ago, so when I saw a new documentary recommendation by one of my favorite podcasters (Ben Kissel of Last Podcast on the Left) this morning, I was so excited to watch The House In Between. The House In Between is a film covering the decade-long investigation of the unexplainable happenings in a house in Florence, Mississippi, and for fans of the paranormal, this film is well worth the watch. Some spoilers for The House In Between to follow.
We’ve all seen shows that investigate eerie events in supposedly haunted places, but those places are usually quite old and come with a known history. One of the weirdest things about Alice Jackson’s home is that it isn’t that old, and it doesn’t seem remarkable in any other way either. She had the house built to her specifications in the 1990s, and even back then, she noticed some strange activity like lights turning on or off, or doors opening and closing on their own. She lived with these odd occurrences, she said, until 2011, when it all got way too scary for her. After a particularly frightening experience involving light beams in her bedroom, Alice stopped sleeping in her house. She hasn’t stayed a night there since.
Alice’s house, known as “The Mississippi House”
Being in a super Christian southern town, Alice was initially afraid to tell people about what was happening in her home for fear of their reactions, but after some local news coverage, she opened up about her experiences. From there, she worked with paranormal investigators (both experienced and amateur) to try to figure out the source of her home’s activities. For investigator John Bullard, the nearly 10-year investigation marks the longest one of his career. For almost a decade, Alice’s home has been outfitted with cameras to record around the clock. I’m not going to lie—the footage is quite compelling, whether you believe in ghosts or not.
Much of the film’s investigation centers on an event involving a baseball that moves on its own. To the filmmakers’ credit, they first try to explain the physical phenomenon with rational explanations. They speak to experts—a contractor, an electrician, a physicist—to eliminate reasons for the house’s events. This makes it less of an eye-roll when they bring in a psychic later because it feels like they do fully explore other possible explanations besides “ghosts did it.” Whether you believe in the spirit world or strictly in the physical, the footage makes you ask “What did move that ball?” because something had to apply force to it.
Filmmaker and paranormal investigator Steve Gonsalves
There are other odd happenings too, many of which are also caught on camera and occur when no one is in the home. The investigators react in different ways. Bullard thinks that by coaxing reactions, they are teaching the dead to communicate with them. Brad Cooney, a local paranormal investigator who took interest in Alice’s home and dedicated over four years to the investigation, always seems to really be enjoying himself, and he’s usually the first to look for the most rational explanation. Even-keeled filmmaker and paranormal investigator Steve Gonsalves really just wants to discover the reasons behind what is happening, and it is clear he truly cares about helping Alice. They all make an unlikely team, but their relationship (and friendship) is a sweet and unexpected part of this film.
Back to the spooky stuff. The film wanders for a bit when it floats the ideas of inter-dimensional or possible extraterrestrial activity, but it quickly returns to more ghostly explanations. When a psychic and a neighbor provide evidence that a murder might have occurred in Alice’s backyard—possibly hundreds of years ago—I was all in for a full-throttle old timey murder investigation. We get a little bit of that, but I wanted so much more. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a deeper dive into town history outside of what was unfortunately destroyed in the town fires. I wondered if there might be some additional information that could be uncovered that could help fill in the blanks the missing land history left, because it feels like some of these questions maybe could have been answered with historical evidence, while questions about what is causing lights to flicker cannot be answered so simply.
Alice (left) consults a psychic
While The House in Between does not come to a tidy conclusion, the end of the film is still quite riveting as viewers get to experience some of the more gripping real-time footage of the investigation. (I won’t spoil this!) While you’ll be left with questions, the filmmakers are too, and I think that’s okay. The movie asks you to consider the possibility of life after death, and possibly even consciousness after death. Even if both of those sound like crazytown ideas to you, I think this documentary would still be engrossing for both skeptics and believers. No matter what you believe in, when you see footage like this, it makes you want to know the source of the problem, even if the source is something totally explainable. At the very least, this film will keep you interested and make you think about what you would do if you were in Alice’s shoes.
At just 81 minutes, The House In Between is a quick watch that will leave you wanting more. I, for one, need to know more about the history of Alice’s property, for starters. (I could watch another full documentary about that, so it’s a major shame that the town fires destroyed so much.) The movie is available to rent on several internet streaming services, as well as cable on demand. Have you already seen it? Tell us what you thought of this film in the comments!