I had somehow missed on on this film until now, but I'm glad I took the time to watch it because it turned out to be pretty good. It's definitely for fans of slow burning horror, so if you're into films such as Hereditary, The Witch, etc, this is certainly worth a watch.
The movie's atmosphere is bleak, dreary, and claustrophobic in my opinion, which is a big plus for me. The buildup of tension is quite good, and writer/director Adam Macdonald was quite successful in leaving a lot to the viewer's imagination without that being an annoyance. Much like the first 2 acts of The Conjuring, you don't see the evil spirit entirely; only glimpses, shadows, or the sound of footsteps that have the character its tormenting so paralyzed with fear, they're afraid to turn around even though they absolutely know something is pacing within a breath of the back of their neck.
One downside to this movie for me was that the two main characters, Leah and her mother (Laurie Holden, who did a great job I thought), both unfortunately suffer from a lack of common sense in many situations. Several had me shaking my head like I did when I watched horror characters make idiotic decisions 20+ years ago that made me yell at my TV. You know, like running up the stairs instead of out the open front door when the slasher is 50 yards behind the screaming character walking at the speed of Michael Myers.
The other main downside for me was the ending. I'm not going to spoil that, but I will say that it was only partially satisfying. To me, it felt incomplete, like just oooone or two more things maybe could have happened in an additional 3-5 minutes that would have wrapped it up. But that's just because of what I was expecting/hoping would occur due to the nature of the antagonist. Your experience may be different.
Well worth a watch.
The movie's atmosphere is bleak, dreary, and claustrophobic in my opinion, which is a big plus for me. The buildup of tension is quite good, and writer/director Adam Macdonald was quite successful in leaving a lot to the viewer's imagination without that being an annoyance. Much like the first 2 acts of The Conjuring, you don't see the evil spirit entirely; only glimpses, shadows, or the sound of footsteps that have the character its tormenting so paralyzed with fear, they're afraid to turn around even though they absolutely know something is pacing within a breath of the back of their neck.
One downside to this movie for me was that the two main characters, Leah and her mother (Laurie Holden, who did a great job I thought), both unfortunately suffer from a lack of common sense in many situations. Several had me shaking my head like I did when I watched horror characters make idiotic decisions 20+ years ago that made me yell at my TV. You know, like running up the stairs instead of out the open front door when the slasher is 50 yards behind the screaming character walking at the speed of Michael Myers.
The other main downside for me was the ending. I'm not going to spoil that, but I will say that it was only partially satisfying. To me, it felt incomplete, like just oooone or two more things maybe could have happened in an additional 3-5 minutes that would have wrapped it up. But that's just because of what I was expecting/hoping would occur due to the nature of the antagonist. Your experience may be different.
Well worth a watch.