The horror in the miniseries The Nice House on the Lake is not what one expects. It’s much, much worse…
By Juliet Bennett Rylah
There’s a mystery that kicks off in a familiar way, if you’re a fan of mysteries. But then something happens, not what is expected, but something much worse. La Linda Casa en el Lago is an apocalyptic sci-fi horror story by author James Tynion IV (Batman, The Joker, Something is Killing the Children), artist Álvaro Martínez Bueno and colorist Jordie Bellaire.
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As you may have guessed, most of the story takes place in a lake house, but “nice” lake house is an understatement. It’s huge, gorgeous, pristine, and far away—there’s no other lake house in sight. It’s located in upstate Wisconsin, and it’s rented out for a week in June to a bespectacled guy named Walter. Walter has decided to organize a retreat to get away from it all with a group of his lifelong friends. You know guys like Walter. He is one of those people who have always been a bit strange, but not without charm.
Walter has always been a bit over the top
Our cast of characters arrive at the house as they would in an Agatha Christie novel or a game of Cluedo. Although all the guests know Walter, no one knew for sure who else was coming. Each one was previously assigned a nickname that corresponds to their profession. The Accountant. The writer. Comedian. He also assigned each of them a symbol. Again, it’s always been a bit of an exaggeration.
Most of the guests happen to be 30-somethings Walter met in high school or college. The rare guest is The Artist. Her name is Ryan Cane, a 26-year-old from Brooklyn whom Walter met at a bar through one of the Comedian’s ex-girlfriends.
When Ryan first arrives at the lake house, he is wearing a mask. Norah (The Writer) is sitting outside of it, smoking a cigarette as she uses a handheld thermometer to take Ryan’s temperature before bringing her inside.
It’s a brief moment, but it quickly tells us that this story is taking place in our world, with a pandemic that many other fictional TV shows and movies have chosen to ignore. When Ryan removes his mask and walks in to find a group of carefree adults drinking and socializing without masks or distancing, it’s a relief we can probably all relate to. Who among us doesn’t need a week-long vacation with friends where we can do something other than worry about the nightmare of the last couple of years?
The choice of clothing conveys exactly how each person is…
The art is also modern. The characters are drawn in a way that gives the feeling of being well matched. The choice of clothing conveys exactly who each person is, from the laid-back Comedian’s unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, cap and party wristbands to the cynical Norah’s dark-colored pantsuit with Chucks.
These first moments are interspersed with screenshots of Walter’s invitation emails and his social media feeds, complete with sans-thank you lyrics that make it seem like you’re looking at the same thing they are.
At first, the vacation seems fine, slipping easily into the kinds of activities one would expect at a lakeside retreat. Fire up the grill, jump in the pool, open a beer. But then something happens.
In a classic commonplace, there would be a body. One of the guests would be found floating face down in the lake or stabbed to death in a bedroom and the rest would take turns pointing out the would-be killers.
But in La Linda Casa en el Lago, it is not what happens inside the house, but outside of it. It’s a twist that leaves numerous possible avenues to explore and a new set of questions, not the least of which is why Walter chose the guests he chose.
Tynion’s New Horror
If you’ve read Tynion’s other horror work – Something is Killing the Children – you’ll find that The Pretty House on the Lake is a different kind of horror. This might seem like a no-brainer, since a comic book series called Something Is Killing Kids is about, well, monsters that kill kids and those that try to stop them. The horror is very visceral, never skimping on showing mangled bodies and devastated families. What is at stake is something very important, the lives of the most vulnerable hang in the balance.
It’s hard to imagine a worse terror than that of a child-killing monster, and yet, somehow, Pretty House on the Lake offers something worse, while also being a lot less brazen. And while the first few pages hint at what might happen to guests, they definitely leave the reader wanting more. We assure YOU that this will be a rather strange trip.
Juliet Bennett Rylah writes about horror comics and the dark side of superheroes for DCComics.com. If you want to know more about Juliet, follow her on Twitter at @JBRylah.
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DC Black Label Graphic Novel – The Pretty House on the Lake Volume One
All the guests at the house know Walter; well, they know him a little, at least. Some knew him in childhood; others knew him months ago. And Walter has always been a bit… weird. But after the toughest year of their lives, no one was going to turn down Walter’s invitation to a stunningly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking a huge wild lake. It’s beautiful, opulent and private, so a week of putting up with Walter’s weird plans and nicknames in exchange for the vacation of a lifetime from him? Why not? All of them were at a point in their lives where they could feel that they were drifting away from their other friends; and a chance to reconnect with everyone would be…nice, wouldn’t it?
In The Pretty House on the Lake, the overwhelming anxieties of the 21st century take on a terrifying new face, and it may be that of the person you trusted the most. Eisner Award-winning horror master James Tynion IV (Batman, Something is Killing the Children, The Department of Truth) and his longtime artistic collaborator Álvaro Martínez Bueno (Detective Comics, Justice League Dark) give him a twist on the “cabin in the woods” concept and take a group of young people who could easily be you and your friends to a breaking point – and then beyond – in this first volume of the best-selling series of 2021. .
This edition collects The Nice House on the Lake #1-6.
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