K Gray’s review published on Letterboxd:
The marketing campaign for this was one of the best in recent memory with rave reviews calling it “scariest movie of the year,” “best horror film of the decade,” and “the modern-day Silence of the Lambs” along with trailers, voicemails, billboards, rumors, heartbeats, etc. that helped the buzz for this spread like wildfire. Unfortunately, this highly anticipated indie horror film ended up being a pretty big disappointment for me.
It’s an artsy horror thriller that is more creepy than scary and relies on the imagination of the audience to provoke fear rather than gore or violence. The stellar camerawork, editing, lighting, and overall production is fantastic as it all formulates to create an extremely eerie environment for most of if not all of the film. I was on the edge of my seat for a good portion but once it reached a point of too many fakeouts, I realized that nothing truly terrifying was going to happen and the slowburning story began to gradually lose steam for me until it completely ran out of gas by its conclusion. The plot is too predictable, the few violent scenes aren’t worth the buildup, and almost all performances feel flat with Nic Cage falling victim to his overacting allegations. He’s treated as the boogeyman and rightfully so but the more he appears on screen, the more aura he loses until ultimately he feels like a caricature of Teddy Perkins (Atlanta) and Scary Movie’s version of Michael Jackson. It’s still an unsettling experience that’s impressively directed in elevated horror style but once the lights finally illuminate the dark, it’s exposed for being a loosely written drama thriller with a lot of potential but little to show for it.
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