I am probably going to make some folks mad with this review but I promise no spoilers. First of all, let me just say that I really enjoyed this movie and completely dug what the filmmakers were aiming for. There are solid scares, subtle special effects and (maybe the best compliment I can give a horror movie) it really stabs at the reptilian part of the brain that is scared of dark corners and empty spaces. Now then I have to say, don't go see this in the theater.
If you watch this, watch it on DVD/blu-ray/whatever, in your house with the lights off in the middle of the night. I can almost promise you will have a better time. In a completely unscientific poll, I have concluded that audiences all over America are made up of a good percentage of idiots. Total morons, in fact. I understand that scary movies can cause nervous laughter and even some inane babbling but, for the love of all that is good and holy, shut the **** up. Everyone I know who has seen the movie (including myself) has had the experience partially to largely ruined by rude audiences who believe they are in their living room. Thus, if you read this and are one of the talker types, watch this at home where you can dialogue freely with the characters on screen who can't hear you. If you aren't a talker, still watch this at home to avoid the talkers.
The rant isn't quite over either. Besides rude people in theaters, this movie brings out the other lamest group of theater patrons: those who hate to use their brains (the Venn diagram for these two groups is pretty much one solid circle). Besides the premise of the movie, there was another way in which my experience echoed that of seeing the Blair Witch Project in the theater...as I walked out I heard about half the audience complain that they didn't understand and thought the movie wasn't scary. I guess if a little transvestite doll on a tricycle isn't taunting you into cutting your own spleen out, the movie is operating on too subtle a level for most people. People want gore and viscera and to be spoon fed every little bit of information. Well, guess what? This movie requires you to use your imagination. I was wondering if the people walking out disappointed with this movie were the same ones walking out of Blair Witch ten years ago complaining about that and then I realized, nope, these people would have been 9 years old when Blair Witch came out. It isn't their fault that their brains can't wrap themselves around the idea that there is true horror in what you can't see.
One of my favorite horror movies from the past few years, the Orphanage, figured out that our minds can conjure horrors beyond anything CGI can show us. The best moments of this movie, the Orphanage, and Blair Witch are the moments when we don't want to look into that dark hallway, over that shoulder or into those woods but we do anyway...terrified but thrilled at what we might see. If that sounds boring to you, keep your dumb ass at home.
Josh
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