If this doesn’t convince you to pray, I don’t know what will

This movie is incredible. A horror film to remember? Absolutely. As an investigative thriller? I’m here for it. I will remember my first time watching this film. 

The marketing was so good, it was almost impossible to live up to. Yet, for me, it somehow failed to meet, met, and exceed expectations simultaneously. Yes it didn’t always push the horror as far as I wanted, and yet it was always present. As if lurking in the background. The constant edge I was put on, and the tension constantly rising but never releasing is a much harder feat than haters of this will give it credit for.

The cast is incredible. Maika Monroe is an incredible lead for this movie in particular because she reflects this constant dread so perfectly. She also carries herself as if there is something actually preventing her from behaving like an average person, which only adds to the feeling of something not quite being right. And Nicholas Cage…………. I mean come on. I almost don’t want to say anything about him as the marketing chose so wisely to obscure him. But man… you’ve never seen anything quite like it. And you still see some Cage-isms tossed in too lol.

The cinematography is perfect. It’s crisp, it’s clean, always showing you everything yet never enough. Many a times, it’s shot in a way that intentionally makes you feel like the characters are being watched. It’s as if the camera and its choice of movement added tension to the scene. And the dark, drab lighting of it all just felt like how horror felt to me as a child. 

The most apt comparison that helped me resolve my expectations going in was that of Silence of the Lambs. And I’d say yeah, plus all the fear and dread you might have gotten a glimpse of from the marketing. But I never could shake the feeling that this should be a classic in our time like that film was for its own. Very different story and tone wise though…

While it was pretty much everything I hoped it would be, it had a couple small issues. There was a pretty big exposition dump, which was absolutely necessary to reveal, but the rest of the script was so much better at telling the story, that it felt below its pay grade. Other than a few minor choices made that I personally would not have (biased preferences)— and having to choose to let the fear of some sillier moments be effective instead of busting out laughing… I’d say this will go down as one of the best of this decade at the very least.