A young man and his younger siblings who have concealed the death of their mother to remain together are plagued by a sinister presence in their home.
Wow. That is all I could say as I left the cinema after watching this film. I'll be honest, I only really watched the film because it was the only film I hadn't seen, that was currently out. But despite this, I had seen trailers and adverts for this film and it really seemed to entice me. What's more is that this film is claimed to be a horror film, and a combination of releasing a horror film on Friday the 13th and using well known actors and actresses surely must result in a great film, right? Here's my opinion on the film.
As always, I'll begin with what I liked about this film. I really liked how the film began, through the use of both close up and pan camera shots we were introduced to each of the characters. Instantly, the audience were presented with all of the characters and what kinds of personalities and roles that they had. This allowed the audience to build a great relationship with the characters, pretty much right from the beginning and when this is achieved, the film gets off to a great start. The use of a book to 'story tell' the whole film was an idea we have seen before, but one that was really nicely executed within this film. We were shown through the first section of the film and then towards the end we are shown the final part of the story to tidy up the plot of the film. I feel that the storybook idea relates really well not only to the genre of the film but also the location too, the location was a very typical classic small farming village but we were introduced to each of the lesser used characters here really well. Which again, allowed the audience to gain a better perspective of the types of characters in the film. Speaking of their personalities, I think they were all really interesting and cool! The personalities of the characters were all really unique and refreshing to see, and what's best is that I feel all of the characters played a vital role in the story of the film too, there were no boring characters in this film. The good personalities and relationships between these characters also played right into the hands of the film as it provided us with a realistic, relatable family relationship that felt genuine and just added in a real sense of emotion into the film alongside other emotions too. As I've mentioned, it's a horror film and yes it did have some scary parts to it but for me it was much more of a combination of multiple genres - horror yes, but also romance, action, adventure and what impressed me a lot was how well this film seemed to manage all of these emotions. It didn't throw all of them at the audience at once, but instead, it used the element of surprise to catch the audience off guard and subtly raise sadness, envy or even love. I didn't feel that the characters were 'overdoing' it at any point in the film, the mixture of emotions and genres were en-thrilling and really helped the film to be successful in my opinion.
I mentioned that I liked the scenery but it wasn't until a little while in the film that I realised when this film was actually set, during 1969 for reference! And when Jack visited the nearby town to exchange good,s this is where we really experience the jump in time! The scenery and set were really good and even though I didn't experience first hands the 'swinging 60s', I can confidently say that the appearance was spot on and provided the audience with a realistic view - almost as if we were actually watching a film from so long ago! This scene is where we are introduced to Tom Porter, I really enjoyed seeing how he went from being an enemy of the Marrowbone's to a friend and then to an enemy again and I loved the changes and developments of the different relationships within this film! Not only did it keep us on our toes, but again, it added to the overall realism and character of the film as it represented real friendships and personalities of people. The manner in which audio was used to accompany this was amazing, the audience weren't given the usual loud music when we first met Tom, but it just seemed to present the feeling of envy and distrust to the characters very cleverly - without using audio effects really at all! The audio also had a positive effect of creating an ecosystem of surprise and distrust, not only were some of the scary parts to the film that had no build up at all - which actually makes them all the more scary - but the audience were very effectively made to feel edgy and nervy due to the slow, loud beats, only for nothing to happen and the actual surprise to be completely unknown and out of the blue. This ensured that the audience were kept on their feet throughout the whole film and constantly guessing as to what would happen next. One of my favourite parts of this film was towards the end, when Allie reads the book and we see the ending. This was just so effective and exciting for me, the film essentially gives the audience the story at the start and then goes through it and explains the relevance of what has happened and why. Such as the man shooting the window at the beginning, this was explained later on in the film and these simple explanations really tied up the film well and helped to strengthen the plot. Speaking of which I thought the plot was very strong and stable (no I'm not Theresa May!). Admittedly towards the beginning I was slightly unsure as to why things were happening but at the end they were all cleared up well. Personally, I love these types of films, they keep suspense and the emotion of curiosity in the audience through the film and make you say "oh so that's what that means" at the end. The constant mystery relating to the Dad and what he had done and why he was portrayed as such an evil character was also interesting as it drove the audience to want to find out why he was such a bad character. The film used this very effectively and again - released all at the end. The ending of the film, I must say was one of my favourite ending scenes to a film ever. I had not predicted that his family had actually been killed by the Dad and throughout the film they were all in his mind, only for him to save Allie by shooting his Dad in the head in his attic where he had spent the last 10 years. The film used scenes like this to grab an emotional reaction from the audience, and it did this amazingly well. Many of the audience members were slightly shook up as it was just such a good twist to the end of the film that many had not seen coming, making the surprise element all the more effective.
There were, unfortunately, some issues that I had with the film though. Firstly, the film left the audience very confused for parts of the film, the location, the time frame, the history of the family were all parts to the film that were left to the audience to try and guess - at least at the beginning anyway. The best films really guide the audience through the film and evoke a variety of emotions through the way, and even though this film didn't really excite at the start, it did eventually get going later on. The film simply felt like a Netflix type of film instead of one for the cinema, it just didn't seem to present itself in the way that most modern films do, the start of the film just felt slightly too amateur for me. In the sense that there were a lot of random scenes that built tension well, but they usually left audiences confused as to their relevance and why it was happening. I mentioned that the film played around with emotions, but sometimes I think that the film maybe used the wrong emotion and tried to make the audience unsure and questioning when it wasn't suitable really. There was a lot of guessing as to what was going on, again due to the intense curiosity that the film relayed to its audience. Which I feel did let the film down slightly as it just didn't help to strengthen the plot as much as it could've been achieved as it would've if it had completely guided the audience through the plot. It is a shame as I really wanted to like the film, maybe this was due to the relatable factor the film presented? Some elements to the film were slightly unrealistic too, such as when Jack stabs his father in the throat in one scene, and the next he is running to go and kill his family only to be chased by Jack. I wasn't too impressed by the idea of the father being in the attic for so long either, I genuinely felt that this was 'pushing it' a little bit too much and just seemed to be a little confusing and unbelievable for the audience.
Overall, I would rate this film a 9. Yes, maybe it wasn't as scary as it was intended to have been and yes maybe releasing it on Friday the 13th wasn't the best idea, but what I did like was the authenticity of the film. The characters seemed really relatable, their relationships seemed genuine and what I enjoyed a lot about the film was the constant sense of mystery within the film and the real fear that was shown by the characters. I thought that it was really effective at scaring the audience and raising tensions for us. But what I enjoyed most was the ending scene, this was such a big twist to the film that I would never have predicted in a million years and it was just executed so well that the emotional impact that it had was just magnified so many times! It was one of my favourite ending scenes to a film that I have seen. Really impressive. However I think if you go into this film expecting a horror and really scary film then prepare to be let down, but if you go in with an open mind then this film is sure to entertain. I would definitely recommend going to watch this film.
Thank you so much for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review! My apologies for the amount of text, there was just so much to say about this film!!
Thank you again and have a lovely day. :)
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