Director:
Jason Hawkins
2013
Horror
I had
not expected this flick to be so well acted and to be filled with such genuine
scares. It may not be true for every single shot and the actor won’t get any
academy awards for their work but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen
something this scary coming out from a low budget film. There are plenty of films
that try to be scary and use gallons of blood to achieve the effect, this one
doesn’t! To tell you the truth it’s kind of a relief that the main thing this
flick is built on is suspense. I’ve always loved suspense and all the best horror
movies in history is based on suspense, not gore! I’m so glad this is old
school in that sense!
The story revolves about these couple of
siblings that inherits a house from their grandmother. They don’t have a lot of
happy memories from her to say the least. In fact, all they have is memories of
her molesting and abusing them, both physical and psychologically. She had them
carry masks of their faces and even constantly told them that they were
unwanted since their mother disappeared. All these memories comes back when
they visits the old house once more for the funeral arrangements. They are both
grown up now but still so very fragile and on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Some of
the elements could be interpreted as exploitation, such as the sister being a
lesbian and married to another woman. But it’s not like that at all, it just
seems totally natural. It may have something to with the grandmother’s abuse of
course as we learn that the sister has been “sewn up” during childhood. Is this
a statement in the debate of genital mutilation? Could be, but it doesn’t
matter if this is the intent or not. What do YOU think? There are no really
sexual scenes to be found, almost no topless shooting and that kind of stuff.
This movie doesn’t get caught in that trap!
The
brother on the other hand have had drug related problems and guess what, he’s
hooked up with a junkie. She’s on a cleaning up program with medication and
stuff but still a problem child just like him. I think this could be an example
right out of reality! And you could use this as a way to build the movie too. Visions
caused by abstinence. But it doesn’t go their either, just for a short visit.
It’s a bit cleverer than that and more like the classic suspense horror movies.
Lots of inspiration may have come from The
Amityville Horror since there’s a haunted house in the center of the story,
I don’t know. Certain are that the stories have similarities.
There are
excellent choices of music throughout the movie. Almost at all occasions it emphasizes
on the suspense. A small minus is maybe that there also are segment where there
should have been music. Silence is a great way of delivering suspense too but
it’s hard to get it to work if the story isn’t absolutely top notch and by that
I mean absolute masterpieces like Michael
Hanekes Funny Games, the kind of stories that comes out in a movie maybe once
or twice every year and no more. Extremely uncommon in other words!
The ending
sequence is really something extraordinaire! Everything that the film has built
up to that point gets released and we, the audience, stand amazed! After that
the imagery is so arranged that we get something to think about too. A film
that manages to do this properly is unusual, but this one nails it. I have no idea
what to make of the final scene. It makes me wonder…
8/10
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