It's a frustrating film. About half way through I was "with" it, but started to ponder if it was a "love it or hate it" type film or just not good enough.
There's some really good ideas in here, the performances are quite good and the children are better than competent, it's "quite nicely" shot for what it is.
It's a spin on Blair Witch essentially, with more of a push in the direction of "cosmic horror". "Lovecraftian" was probably written in the pitch at least thrice. At the end there's an epilogue section where "this symbol was featured in the film 170 times" and that sums it up quite well. There ARE some good ideas in here, I enjoy the genre it's trying for, but it's just too repetetive and not "freaky" enough. I mostly enjoyed Yellow Brick Road - and that does a much better job of capturing the bewilderment, paranoia and strangeness that's required (and didn't always succeed).
There's a little bit of an Eraserhead vibe and they should have played to that harder, used a broader palette of disorientating effects and ultimately, it's just a bit of a let down because it's too linear, not weird enough and kind of flat. Granted I was stoned out my gourd, but that should have made this (very easy to follow film) more intense - I may veer a star either way on rating sober, but I'm in no hurry to watch again.
However, I would gladly watch another film by the directorial pair and would hope their work improves and gets more intense. There is promise here - just not successfully realised.