Alex Weller’s Reviews > House of Leaves > Status Update

Finished Chapter 2! Despite the tensions the family members have with each other, things eventually go well for the family. Chad is able to sleep, Daisy's finger heals, and Navidson and Karen can finally get intimate with each other. Unfortunately, those few moments are all Navidson has to show how the family was happy before everything started going south. Overall, great chapter!

While the two moments show Navidson and Karen's complicated feelings for each other, critics have been painting them as a toxic couple. Karen has been called spoiled, due to her past as a model. Navidson has actually been honest about this strained relationship with his family: He spent too much time away on work, and even became obsessed with a girl named Delial to the point where he says her name in his sleep.

Sadly, Johnny's story didn't impress the girls enough for them to ask him and Lude on dates; they simply just walked off into the night, giggling. Johnny himself doesn't even fully remember what he told them last night. The story we have just read is just an estimate of what he might have said, and looking back on what he wrote sickens him with how fake it is. But to be fair, he was drinking last night.

Karen's comment leads us to an extensive footnote from Johnny, who woke up with a hangover and discovered his place had no hot water. The previous night, he'd been drinking with Lude and wowed some girls with a made-up story: After months at sea, he got a job pit-boxing, only to get conned by the guys who hired him, then his captain conned them by selling them exotic birds when they thought they were buying drugs.

The second moment shows Karen helping Chad and Daisy make homemade candles, while constantly glancing into the driveway to see if Navidson has come home yet. When he finally does, she leaves the room to meet him, but masks all her eagerness for him, only indifferently telling him that the water heater isn't working. She apparently loves him but at the same time, has no room for him. I see.

The second scene is revealed to focus primarily on Karen, who was a former supermodel before quitting to take care of her children. Navidson had given her a video camera to make video diary entries, which focus on her worries about leaving the city and settling into a quiet life. Interesting.

While it looks like Navidson might have little regard for Karen due to his sarcasm about her hair and intrusion of her personal belongings, the way the scene is arranged shows the opposite, with Navidson actually preserving her hair on film. Sure thing.

Here we have the first significant scene: Navidson arrives in his and Karen's bedroom, only to impulsively look inside her jewelry box, though we don't see its contents. He then becomes intrigued by hair caught in Karen's hairbrush before Karen comes back in.

A chunk of Navidson's project was captured by CCTV video cameras hung up in every corner of the room. Navidson hoped to catch notable moments in his family's life to put on film. However, two specific scenes, which it appears might be pivotal to the film, were captured with these cameras. I wonder what they were.

Navidson's original goals for making the movie were to showcase his family moving into their new house and getting used to it, while also healing the strained relationship between Navidson and his family due to his constant travels for work. While Navidson's daughter Daisy likes the house, his son Chad, used to the noise of city traffic at night, can't sleep because he's afraid of people hiding in the silence.