Underwater (2020)

Originally reviewed on February 12, 2020

Underwater is a film that is an unwanted movie. It was made by 20th Century Fox and when Disney brought Fox, this film got pushed back (it was filmed in 2017).  This film invokes several films such as Alien, Cloverfield, Event Horizon and Poseidon. The set-up of the film is that Kristen Stewart plays Norah where she and a band of fellow researchers have to get from A to B whilst trying to avoid some buggy parasites. 

I don’t quite know what to do with Stewart. On the one hand I don’t believe her as a leading lady. It’s a shame really because she really throws herself into the movie and she gets thrown about a lot (sometimes quite literally). Vincent Cassel is quite good as Captain. It’s clear that he’s been told not to outshine Stewart but he gets by far the best death. T.J Miller is the comic relief and to be honest he was a distracting influence and I wasn’t bothered by his death. 

There are some issues for me in this film. Firstly the camerawork is terrible. There were times where the camera was shaking so much that it became quite difficult to follow what was going on and who was in peril. Then there is the fact that the characters all have character traits and that is who they are such as Kristen Stewart who is suppose to be Ripley from Alien, Cassel is the European, Miller is the comedian, Jessia Henwick as Emily is the scared one who has to overcome her fears. Mamoudou Athie as Rodrigo’s character trait is that he’s the first to die. I called it when he first appeared and I was proved right. The thing about a film like Alien is that even though they all have their own lives, you believe that they a crew whereas because this film gets going from the very beginning, there is no time for much character development which is a shame really. 

The film’s monster is quite good and they do a good job in hiding it for quite a while. Due to the fact its set on the bottom of the ocean, there is very little light so its not easy to see what the crew are trying to avoid. There are things that I like about this film so its not as terrible as you might think. I don’t think that it’s the best film in the world and its way better than The Meg because its got better acting and better effects. It’s also only 95 minutes long which is quite a good running time and didn’t last longer than it needed to.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining. I’ve not read The Shining or Doctor Sleep but I went into the film slightly hesitant because I really like The Shining and felt that this film could only disappoint.

There are problems with this film. Firstly it takes too long to get to the Overlook Hotel. It’s clear that this is where the film will end up and yet it takes its time to arrive. The first 10-15 minutes do plod along and it doesn’t seem to know how it wants to start but once it does then its fine. However my biggest issue with this film is that they go to the trouble of referencing The Shining even though Stephen King doesn’t like it yet they recast Jack, Dan & Shelley instead of animating them from The Shining and dropping them into the film. Technology allows actors to be de-aged and yet they somehow recast which did slightly ruin it for me. Also there were characters that were bought in yet didn’t really service the plot. I though Snakebite Andi’s role could easily have been wiped out of the story. Also Abra’s mother is sort of forgotten about, she leaves for some reason (which explained) and then doesn’t turn up until towards the end and the father is really also there just to get killed.

The performances are really good. Ewan McGregor is very good as grown up Dan and its probably one of his best performance I have seen him give. Dan is trying to get as far away from his past as he can and he’s a recovering alcoholic and there is a nice vulnerability to him. Rebecca Ferguson is a very good villain as Rose The Hat, every scene she’s in is great. Child actors are normally irritating but not in this film. Kyliegh Curran plays Abra who becomes friends with Dan and she more than holds her own. She might be a bit too cocky at times but overall she more than holds her own against Rebecca Ferguson and Ewan McGregor. Also I thought that Alex Essoe does a superb impression of Wendy Torrance and you easily forget that it wasn’t Shelley Duvall.

The directing of this film is rather good. Mike Flanagan does a good job of keeping the story going and also resorting to clichés and jump scares. There was one jump scare that got me and it was just a light coming on but that was ok and I think that Flanagan is a good director because I quite like another film of his called Hush which also manages to maintain the story. He keeps the nostalgia to the final act and the shot where the camera is over the lake like at the beginning of The Shining was very cool and all the scenes in the hotel were mysterious and atmospheric.

I liked Doctor Sleep. I think that it’s an enjoyable if slightly flawed film. If you go in expecting this film to be better than The Shining then you will be disappointed but if you in not expecting it to be as good then you will enjoy it. The film is two and a half hours long and I actually thought that it was the right amount of time.

IT Chapter Two (2019)

Originally reviewed on July 14, 2020

IT Chapter 2 takes place 27 years after the events of the first movie. This doesn’t mean like I thought that it would just feature the losers as adults but there would be a mixture of the two. It’s a strange start to the film because within 10 minutes we have had a homophobic attack and a domestic violence attack. 

There are problems with this film and its largely narrative. Its 35 minutes longer than chapter one and yet there is very little reason for it. Overall these films run to 5 hours and 4 minutes which is about two hours longer than the 1990 version. Ok the 1990 is meant to be terrible (minus Tim Curry) but we spend five hours doing what could have been done in three. We have to spend an age seeing the losers as adults and they all react differently. It felt at times like they were padding things out to hold off the final act for as long as possible. There are a couple of moments where someone wants to leave and gets talked out of it.

It really doesn’t get going until they arrive at the chinese restaurant. Then what happens from that moment are a series of moments which are done well but then there is a gag that undermines it a little bit. Its first noticeable in the restaurant and then happens a few times. I’m not sure whether they felt it needed a bit of humour but I found it distracting. Also there a moment where young Eddie is covered in black goo and play Angel in the Morning for no reason. There are also a couple of moments which caused laughter in the screening I was in and I cant say that I was surprised or bothered. It was hard to take them seriously at times.

There are good things and they are largely the cast. I thought that all the people in this are on top for and I believe they are the same character that they were in the first film. I’m not the biggest James McAvoy fan and yet actually found him to be quite good. Jessica Chastain was equally as good as the grown up the Beverly. However everyone is overshadowed by Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. I thought that he was really good in the first one and is equally as good in this one. Some people have commented that when he is out in daylight then he loses his menace but I disagree. I thought that every time that he was on screen he was scary and chilling.

The jump scares were quite good. The one scare with the giant statue man with the axe did make pretty much everyone in the screening I was in jump (including myself). Normally they are quite forgettable two seconds after they appear, but on this occasion they are well done. Also the fact that they have managed to degage the younger cast was done quite well. For a while I thought they must have filmed it during the first one but then I thought they can make people look younger like they did in the Avengers film and most of the time the de-aging effect is well done. There are a few moments where its quite obvious but overall its done well.

I don’t think that Chapter 2 is as good as the first. But its not terrible and bearing in mind I was worried that this film was going to disappoint me, thankfully it didn’t and that was a relief.

IT (2017)

Originally reviewed on February 16, 2022

IT is one of those novels that people hold in quite high regard. Never read the book but only aware of it because of Tim Curry’s version of Pennywise the Clown from 1990. The film explores the group of friends known as the losers as they are haunted by a creepy looking clown. The film does a good job in establishing each of the kids with a fear. This is the way that Pennywise can get involved in their lives.

The bullies are all completely unlikeable as they should be. Most times they start off evil and over the course of the film either get their comeuppance from the good guys or they meet a grizzly ending but on this occasion they never get much comeuppance but that gets dealt with in part two but in 2017, there was no guarantee that this would have led to a sequel so it was a brave thing not to have the bullies meet a definitive end. 

There are some good effects mainly the blood bathroom scene where Beth gets drenched in what appears to be blood. That scene looked incredible and the idea that her father cant see it and fair play to the actor for pretending that there is no blood. There are some other good effects but they mainly take place inside Pennywise’s lair. 

The performances from the kids are quite good. I thought that they all worked well with each other although I thought Mike was the least fleshed out and I never really thought that he was as involved in the group as the others. I think that Mike has a greater role in the second one. Bill Skarsgård is really good as Pennywise. Of all the roles that you could take on, there are less daunting ones that Pennywise which is arguably one of the most well-known roles in horror. It reminds me of Jared Leto after Heath Ledger played the Joker, but Skarsgård manages to pull of the seemingly impossible. It’s a very different version of Pennywise to what Tim Curry did and yet its still creepy. There is more of a child-like vibe in his performance compared to Curry’s. 

I really liked this film when I first saw it. Having watched it again, I don’t think it’s as good as I first thought. I still enjoyed it and think that its better than the second one but my opinion has changed in just a few years. The final act of the film was very good but that’s because everything went completely crazy and still holds up. Chapter One is the better film.

Resident Evil (2026)

When they announced that there would be a Resident Evil reboot I think everyone rolled their eyes as if to say 'another one?'. Some were slightly intrigued when it was announced that Zach Cregger would be directing it. I was a big fan of Weapons and really enjoyed Barbarian. The bar was quite low to say that this was the best film in the Resident Evil series considering most of them are fairly terrible and not in a fun kind of way. The set up is that Austin Abrams plays Bryan who is a courier and is delivering organs to a hospital when he is offered a job that pays well to take a package to Racoon City Hospital. On the way he hits someone and things go from bad to worse. Everyone that Brian comes across has been infected and it's the fault of the Umbrella Corporation and the package is part of the cure. 

There are many things that I liked about this film. I thought that the humour was perfect. Bryan isn't an action guy and is actually a klutz who seems to be suffering from the worst luck. The whole house portion of the film was really well done and even though it might have bordered on cliche it never stayed long enough in the house for that to be an issue and the story then moved to Racoon City. The film is only 95 minutes so this is as stripped down as its possible to get and Cregger has managed to keep all the interesting things and apparently in the original cut there were more jokes and they were taken out cause the test audience was laughing. Well he took them out but left enough humour to make it entertaining.

The atmosphere that Cregger has created is brilliant. The darkness mixed in with the snow is used to great effect. Even though its at night I could still see what was happening. One of the the things that I liked in Weapons was how things just seemed to go crazy completely out of nowhere and there are a couple of scenes where Bryan is running and they are all great especially when people are throwing themselves off the top of buildings and its just a great visual. Also Cregger knows how to make jump scares scary. There are directors who rely too much to get a reaction out of people but Cregger knows how and more importantly when to use them. 

I thought that Austin Abrams was really good. He didn't know it all and wasn't even good at firing weapons and his reaction to crazy things happening was absolutely spot on.

Paul Walter Hauser is probably the most famous name in this film and he is probably in it for about 10 minutes. He comes in and delivers a bunch of exposition and is quite funny but just cause he is the famous name doesn't mean he was long for this film. 

If I did have an issue with the film then it's with the final ten minutes or so. Once it got into the lab and Bryan transforms, then I found myself not as interested in it and felt it went a bit too silly. The last shot is of Bryan fully transformed almost certainly about to die was probably the right way to end it but I just thought the silliness went a bit too far. 

Overall I really enjoyed this film and was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I was worried that it was going to go the way that Return to Silent Hill did earlier this year but thankfully it is far more creative, far more atmospheric and better in absolutely every way. I must admit I don't know too much about Resident Evil as I have only played the very first game and watched the Paul W.S. Anderson films so I can't say that I am mega invested in the game series but as a horror film it more than delivers.

28 Days Later (2002)

Originally reviewed on May 20, 2025

With 28 Years Later coming out, it seems like an opportune moment to see the previous two instalments. 28 Days Later is a film that reset the zombie horror genre even though they aren't zombies in this film but infected. The film starts with a trio of animal activists who release one of the chimps that are being infected with rage and things go quickly wrong. If only they hadn't done that then the next three films would never have happened. The film then moves along appropriately enough 28 days and we see a naked Cillian Murphy wake up. I’m not quite sure why he’s naked. I saw this after The Walking Dead and it's weird to see how similar they are. The film sees Jim walk around a deserted London which is strange to see and then comes across Naomie Harris’ Selena and Noah Huntley’s Mark and they go to Jim’s family home but then Mark gets killed then Jim and Selena carry on and come across Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns). Together they decide to go to Manchester and see help but when they get there then Frank is infected and killed and the soldiers do help but they become really sinister when Christopher Eccleston’s Major West says that he promised his soldiers a woman and that is when things go really wrong and then the infected take over the house.

This is one of those films that had a cast that were not particularly well known at the time but would go on to be big names. Cillian Murphy would go on to win an Oscar, Naomie Harris would go on to find fame and most recently played Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films, Brendan Gleeson is great in pretty much anything and was especially great in The Banshees of Inisherin. Christopher Eccelston is the one that stands out for me because he played the Doctor in Doctor Who back in 2005. Probably one of the most underrated actors to play the Doctor in the new era. He is horrible as Major Henry West. He is the leader of the army soldiers and is playing the nice guy hiding a sinister bully and he’s very good in the role although I do find the posh accent strange coming from Eccleston. Cillian Murphy is good as Jim. I think he does much better work in later years so I can't be too harsh about his acting because he does a good job, just not a great job. Naomie Harris is hard to like at first but once the story progresses she gets better and becomes a nice supporting performer next to Murphy. Brendan Gleeson like Eccleston does an accent that is slightly distracting (this time a cockney accent) but he is the father to Hannah and is the likeable supporting person that he would do in countless other films. I always dislike the fact that he dies because a drip of blood gets in his eye. I just wish he moved to one side as it fell but it's because I like Gleeson.

There is a TV show from the 70’s called Survivors about a pandemic wiping out the world (bit far fetched) but in that there is a scene where they go to a supermarket for supplies and there is someone hanging from the ceiling with a sign saying that looters would be killed and I felt that the scene when they go shopping needed a a darker moment although I understand why they did what they did. The film has plenty of dark moments in this film and the gore still seems effective even after all this time. The camera work is a bit ropey because it is hard to see what is going on especially during the final act when it's the middle of the night and there is very little light.

From a 2025 point of view, the worst thing about this film is the quality of the picture. I know that it was made in 2002 before HD was invented but would it have killed Columbia or Sony to spend a bit of money upgrading the image. There were a couple of shots that looked very grainy and some that looked a bit blurry. The worst part came in the early stages when things looked so dark I thought it was a joke. Also (and this is more of an observation), when this film came out in 2002 it was an 18 but now in 2025 it is a 15 certificate and it shows how far horror has come over the last 23 years. The important thing though is that this film still holds up and is in one of 100 favourite horror films. It would blow a lot of modern horror films, especially Blumhouse films out of the water. It’s a horror film so it should be scary and there are still a lot of things that are scary and it ends with an upbeat ending which doesn't feel like it seems out of place. I missed this film when it came out in 2002 as it was years before my film appreciation improved to where it is today and I am so glad that I saw it on the big screen. I am very much looking forward to 28 Weeks Later. 

On a related note, there was a sneak peak scene of 28 Years Later and it does very much feel like its in keeping with 28 Days Later. It's a bit from the trailer where Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the kid come across the body hanging from the ceiling where ATJ is telling his son (????) to kill the body as a test. It was short but sweet.

28 Years Later (2025)

Originally reviewed on June 22, 2025

28 Years Later is my most anticipated film of 2025. I came to the 28 universe if you can call it that quite late cause gory horror wasn't my thing until quite late in life. I really like 28 Days and think that it deserves the praise that it got. It is perhaps Danny Boyle’s best film if not in his top 3. I quite like 28 Weeks Later even though it's not a patch on ‘Days’. 28 Years Later follows the growing recent trend of long time sequels. This is the first of an intended trilogy, we are getting Part 2 in January 2026 and on the basis of this film we will get the third one probably in late 2026. 

The film starts off with the Teletubbies playing and it reminded me of Warfare (co-directed by Alex Garland) where the soldiers are dancing to ‘Call on Me’ and it was that film saying that this was about as upbeat as the film would get (which was true) and I felt like the Teletubbies was Danny Boyle’s version of that. The film says straight away that they are going to pull no punches because about 8 kids are killed by the infected. Only one manages to survive and this was the first of many times that I found myself saying ‘bloody hell’. 

The film centres around Spike (played by Alfie Williams) who along with his dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are on a little island with other residents that can only be reached by a causeway. Whoever thought that Alfie Williams was the right person to play such an important role deserves a huge bonus because he is brilliant. When he has to place his recently dead mother’s skull on the big pile it was such a sad moment and if you dont feel something for him then you might need to check for a pulse. He has to carry the second half of the film and when Spike is being trained to go hunting but he is very young and doesn't quite make it work but by the end of the film he has grown and becomes better with the bow and arrow. I have never been the biggest fan of Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I don't think he’s terrible but he just seems to pick terrible films (i’m looking at you Kraven the Hunter). He starts off quite likeable at the beginning as he is trying to teach his son how to survive in a world that must be quite scary and the film then makes you change your opinion on him when he sneaks off with another woman and then strikes Spike when he tries to stand up to him. He doesn't feature in the second half so it will be interesting to see where his story ends up. His mother Isla (played by Jodie Comer) is not well and spends the first half of the film in bed and its the second half where Comer shows how good she is. The role isnt the strongest but Comer makes it feel genuine and you feel more sad for Spike when she keeps calling her son Dad. I am slightly disappointed by the fact that she doesn't make it to the end of the proposed trilogy but it does serve as the main reason why Spike grows up and becomes a man even though only a few weeks have passed by the end of the film.

Ralph Fiennes is very good as Dr Kelson. He is painted pretty much like a certain US President and it did generate some giggles in my screening. He is portrayed by the islanders as a madman but he is anything but and he has built the skull display that you see in the trailer. He gets very little screen time but it is suggested that he survives so he may appear in future installments. I hope so because Fienes is fun to watch as Kelson and his skills might be useful to the inhabitants of the island. Edvin Ryding plays Erik who is literally introduced so that after a few minutes he is killed and his skull is ripped from his body. He is a little bit annoying for the brief time that he is on screen but at least his death is quite good.

It is worth pointing out Chi Lewis-Parry who plays Alpha who seems to be the main villain of the film and is way more powerful than most infected and he can only be stopped with a tranquilliser. It’s a performance with no dialogue yet is very menacing. He is responsible for a couple of quite gory deaths and I do mean gory because he rips people's skulls off their bodies with their spinal column still attached. 

The film ends with the young boy from the beginning now a grown up and we get a bizarre fight scene which did remind me of A Clockwork Orange and we have seen references to Jimmy throughout the film and he is clearly going to feature quite heavily in the next one (maybe the third). This is the second performance from Jack O’Connell in 2025 that I have thought was really good. Unlike Sinners, he is only in this briefly and I cant wait to see what O’Connell does in the next one. 

I think some people might be disappointed with the fact there is no Cillian Murphy (even though he is credited as an Executive Producer). Danny Boyle has said in repeated interviews that Murphy isn't in this film and whilst there was always the chance that Boyle and Alex Garland were trying to do a bluff but Murphy is definitely not in it and that works in the films favour because it means that we can focus on new characters and by the time that he does appear then we have characters that we care about and are interested in. Overall I really liked this film. I don't know whether it's better than Days because it was made at a different time but this is definitely one of my favourite films of the year. I had high expectations and they were definitely met. It's a good thing that we only have six months to wait for part two and I really hope we get part three.

Bring Her Back (2025)

Originally reviewed on July 21, 2025

After enjoying Talk To Me, I was intrigued with what Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou would come up with next. The set up is that Piper and Andy are step brother and step sister who after the death of their father are sent to Laura and as Andy is nearly 18 he has three months to show he is responsible to be the legal guardian of Piper. This is a slow build up type film which might put some people off but I like this type of film but it has to feel like it's building up to something and this definitely does, there is something strange happening every so often and then the story progresses. The vast majority of the story takes place in this house which despite being quite big (compared to British houses with this being an Australian house), the film still feels claustrophobic.

This was an 18 certificate film and boy did it deserve that rating. There were about four occasions which made me look away. The first time was by far the worst as it involved Ollie eating the knife with the blade going into his teeth and it cuts away and then back to those teeth which on a huge cinema screen just looked gross. Another instance came when he started tearing strips of his arm as for something to eat and then he tried to eat the wooden dinner table which must have been done as a slightly comedic moment because of how absurd it is.

Sally Hawkins deserves awards for her performance though she probably won't because horror rarely gets nominated. There is something off with her from the very moment we see her and as the film progresses she becomes unhinged. It is difficult to fully hate her because even though what she is doing is terrible, she is doing it to bring back her deceased daughter so there are mixed emotions when it comes to how I should feel about Laura and her actions. Billy Barrett and Sora Wong are very good together as two people who are looking after each other and want to be together. Even when Andy is framed for attacking Piper, there is a sense that she doesn't 100% believe that he did it. Despite being visually impaired, Sora Wong more than holds her own and her fight scene with Sally Hawkins was unexpected although it felt like the shaky cam was used to hide things but I thought that Wong was very good as was Jonah Wren Phillips who is front and centre of the story and if anyone deserved your sympathy then is Ollie who has been kidnapped and used to effectively bring Laura’s dead daughter back to life. His own life ruined and its hard to believe that if/when Cathy knew the truth she would be happy with what happened.

Talk To Me is the film you make when you want to get noticed in a crowded horror genre, Bring Her Back is what you make when you want to show that your first film wasn't a one hit wonder. I had high expectations and they were met. It does everything that a horror film should do. I saw this immediately after the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot and one of these films had tension, horrific moments, tension, a great story and performances ... .and the other is the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot. When people talk about how good horror films have been in 2025 and in the last couple of years then they should talk about this film because not only is it horrific and very good, but its an original story and not based on an existing IP. Definitely worth your time.

Together (2025)

Originally reviewed on August 15, 2025

I’m normally not a big fan of body horror. I think that when it's done well it can be a bit too squishy and so it's something I tend to stay away from, however there was something about Together that made me curious. It was because it was given a 15 certificate and yet Weapons was given an 18 (which it didn’t deserve) so I decided to take the risk and see if I could cope with it. The set up of the film sees Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple called Tim and Millie who for ‘reasons’ move to the countryside and in no time at all they go hiking and fall into a cave, whilst staying the night they decide to drink some water and that is when things go wrong.

The whole process of Tim and Millie trying to figure out what is going on was quite interesting and it helps that Franco and Brie are married in real life as this means that you buy that they are a couple that are having issues and normally the differences would annoy me but Brie and Franco work well to make me care about what's going on. The joining effects were generally well done although the final one was not great and could have done with being a bit darker. This is a horror movie with some horrific moments. My worry that the body horror would be too much was unfounded. There were gory moments but they were brief and that is the level I can deal with. The sight of them dancing to a Spice Girls song was an interesting way to end their involvement in the film.

The biggest issue I have with this film is the pacing. The film is 102 minutes which is the perfect length for a horror film and yet it felt rushed. The cult stuff is a complete waste of time. We meet Jamie who works at the school that Millie does and it's clear from the moment he talks about the cult that it was clear he was a part of it and in no time at all we learn that he is. Instead of a couple of big scenes about the cult we get just one with Jamie and Millie and then that's it. Nothing after that so it seemed like it could have been cut and would have made no difference to the plot. 

Not going to lie but I was slightly disappointed with this film. The pacing lets the film down and it wastes the cult stuff and the quiet town aspect of the plot. It’s directed well and Franco and Brie are worth seeing but it feels like a bit more time could have been spent working on the plot and as a result its one of the weaker horror films in a year that has been great for the genre.

Weapons (2025)

Originally reviewed on August 11, 2025

Weapons is one of the most intriguing films of the year. I was a fan of Zach Cregger’s last film ‘Barbarian’. The set up is that all but one child in a class disappeared at 2:17am, the film is a Rashomon structured film where we see a certain time period from several different perspectives that seem unrelated but then there is a little moment that connects it to the overall story. Julia Garner is the teacher who is suspected by pretty much the entire city that she knows something and we see her story, then we see the principal (Benedict Wong) and his story, Josh Brolin plays Archer who is the father one of of the missing kids who believes that Justine has something to do with it, then we see James (Austin Abrams) who is a junkie who breaks into the house that has the kids then Alden Ehrenreich plays the cop who has a thing with Justine and finally we have Alex’s story and his is the most interesting.

Alex is the only one in the class and that was a mystery that was more interesting than what happened to the 17 kids and that's because it's sort of told about half way through. It’s his Aunt that basically ruins his entire life. He is tricked into believing that if he brings the 17 kids then she will leave and his parents will be let go and at that point I found myself feeling sorry for the terrible thing that Alex is doing. The performances are really good. It is funny that three of the main actors in this film are Thanos, Silver Surfer and the younger Han Solo. When Amy Madigan turns up as the Aunt, she reminds me of Pauline from the BBC show ‘League of Gentlemen’. It was like the soul of the character had been dug up and planted into this film. Despite this I still found myself enjoying what was happening and that is down to how well the film is structured and how the characters are written.

The final 10 minutes reminded me of Parasite in a good way. The moment where the guy is mowing the lawn, looks up and then sees the woman being chased by the kids got a big laugh and I chuckled myself. In that film it is one film and then changes tone to become amazing and this seems to have a great mystery and then turns into a comedy towards the end. That whole section is a big shift in tone and yet it completely works. The whole film manages to walk a tightrope and is in danger of ruining the tension and mystery but credit to Zach Cregger for using some creativity in keeping things going. At 2 hours I was worried that the film was going to drag but that wasn't the case, I thought the runtime was perfect.

I really enjoyed this film. I had high expectations which is normally a dangerous thing but I wasn't disappointed. You will benefit from not knowing anything other than what you see in the trailer. The trailer does a fantastic job where you know enough to get you intrigued but not too much and doesn't let the film down. 2025 has produced some very good horror films and this is definitely in my top three. Well worth your time.