Dan Holford’s review published on Letterboxd:
“Damn, them woods be scary baby gurl!” - numerous members of Williams family.
My first watch of this, and it’s fair to say, I must be alone in this camp. While there are amazing visuals and some great acting, along with creepy moments coming through (mainly due to the music), the film overall just didn’t do it for me.
Visuals and direction can only go so far. The film does look great, with a rather small setting, the film manages to display some great images to the viewer and create an overall world that does feel real and developed. But the story and plot, really didn’t grip me at all. I felt it was hard to feel for the family, with their God fearing perhaps too alien and weird to me. This doesn’t help the horror elements of the movie, as I didn’t feel much connection to any of the characters to really care what happened to them.
The slow building plot, rather than building and tension, just felt more like treading water with a few odd/creepy moments thrown in. Some elements of the film I found, rather boring in some moments, I understand that slow building up creates tension, but it just didn’t for me here. Until around an hour in, where the horror actually does ramp up a fair amount, a sort of semi ‘exocism’ being the highlight of the movie for me. Even the ending I quite liked, but perhaps it was a little too late to keep it a ‘good’ ending for me.
I can totally see why people absolutely love this movie. But for me, it was too slow building, and these sort of period pieces can often lose me without keeping them interesting.
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