I'd caught part of a trailer for this movie, and saw some favorable posts from members of the horror community, but this wasn't a movie tremendously on my radar. One of my friends bought tickets for us to go see it Monday night, and I was not prepared for the insanity of this movie and the emotions it stirred up.
I very strongly feel that every member of this cast has a long career ahead of them if they continue to bring this kind of performance to the table. Mia (Sophie Wilde), Riley (Joe Bird), Hayley (Zoe Terakes), and Sue (Miranda Otto - who has already proven herself to LOTR fans) were the characters I was most impressed with, even though they played wildly different characters. All that being said, I still think everyone brought their A-game.
This film is grief horror at its strongest. Mia's recent loss of her mother has taken an understandable toll on her, and I related a LOT to some of her coping mechanisms. Even her tight-knit relationship with her friend Jade's family was something I strongly vibed with, since most of my family lives states away and I tend to just be adopted by the families of friends who live in the area.
Adding unknown, malicious, supernatural forces to a time when someone is so emotionally vulnerable, is clearly a recipe for disaster. We typically don't make the best choices when we're distressed, and when Mia's choices impact Jade's brother Riley in horrific ways, we're trapped watching her descend into awful places as she tries to right her wrongs.
The atmosphere was perfect. The increasingly dark circles under everyone's eyes to reflect their levels of exhaustion, the use of lighting, and makeup/SFX were the neatly-tied bow on the top of this unexpected present!! I give it an 8 out of 10.
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