[Raindance Review]: Our Happy Place

Raya Miles as Raya

Having had its international premiere at June’s Raindance Film Festival 2025 held in London, Our Happy Place is a COVID-set nightmarish psychological horror that plays out the damaging effects that isolation can cause to an already fragile psyche.

Directed by Paul Bickel in his feature directorial debut, Our Happy Place stars Raya Miles as Raya, a woman who day after day finds herself awakening in the middle of a nearby forest with no recollection of how she got there. After returning to her cabin, in which she is isolating whilst caring for her bedridden and nearly comatose husband Paul (played by the director himself), she is haunted by the continuous visions of screaming tortured women. With her only contact with the outside world being in the form of zoom calls with her concerned best friend Amy (Tracie Thoms), Raya attempts to discover the truth behind what is going on before she loses her mind completely and irreversibly. 

Raya Miles and Paul Bickel as Raya and Paul

Despite Our Happy Place working hard to fool audiences into not expecting the reveal, it does become blatantly apparent from the get-go, especially with the twist feeling very reminiscent of films like The Night House (2020) and Things Heard & Seen (2021). Where its strength lies however, is its portrayal of the psychological exertion carried out by familial carers, especially during the time of the pandemic, and the almost irreparable toll this isolation and loneliness took on them. Raya has ceased to feel like she is living, joining her husband and his victims in a limbo, trapped in a mind-numbing repetitiveness. She constantly finds herself grieving and mourning the past, a feeling which many can relate to post-COVID. Every day she wakes up, having dug a deeper grave in the forest where she finds herself every morning, a representation of how her situation seems to be slowly killing her. 

Nicole, a victim of Paul's.

Unfortunately, this is slightly tarnished by an ending that feels confused and rushed, ultimately raising more questions that are then left unanswered. Our Happy Place is an admirable first feature, exploring the troubles of carers and isolated people who are often forgotten about in the pandemic conversation.

2.5 Screams Out of 5