Jackson’s review published on Letterboxd:
I don’t really know how to feel about this one. The film ended a little over an hour ago at the time I’m writing this, and I’m still torn about how I feel. First of all, let me just say that I did not find an ounce of this scary at all. If anything, this movie is fucking hilarious. All of the lines that Nic Cage has had me laughing my ass off. It’s just so funny to think that . If it was anyone other than Nic Cage it would be a different story entirely. Someone like Doug Jones, Tilda Swinton, or Bill Skarsgård would’ve flourished in a role like this.
I don’t think it’s a long shot to call Nic Cage one of the greatest actors ever. It’s crazy that some people can be terrified of him in this role and there can be people like me who are amused at his makeup and over the top delivery. I love Nic Cage in any and every facet. And I mean this completely unironically and with the utmost sincerity.
Maika Monroe is such an incredible actress and this exemplifies that perfectly. Any movie that she’s in in the (hopefully) near future I’d be happy to watch. She absolutely kills it in this role.
Blair Underwood is fantastic in this also. He’s really the only character that is written to be funny, and he’s great in this kind of pocket.
There’s no denying to me that this film is very slow and could use some better pacing. A lot of information is kind of bombarded to the face for the average viewer in the first part, and it’s good that the pacing sort of gains some steam towards the end.
The trope of giving a ton of backstory to a “character,” when in reality it’s just so the audience knows what’s going on is so played out and makes me cringe every time I see it, though it is used pretty well here (boy, that was a long sentence lmao). The way it’s done here is Alicia Witt telling it to Maika Monroe, which fits for the story, because Monroe is figuring this info out just as we are.
I think that this film has too many ideas for its own good and it would’ve been better without some minor ideas that it makes big deals.
Overall, I did “like” this film in a general sense, but I feel like it’s not all that people make it out to be.
The marketing alone deserves like 3 stars.
Jackson liked these reviews
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