Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions,
Kathryn Hahn, Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Peter McRobbie, Deanna Dunagan
Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are two young people who live with their single Mom. Mom had a big blowup with her parents when she set out to marry the kids Dad against their wishes. The marriage failed and now she a single Mom but has not spoken to her parents in 15 years. The kids have expressed a desire to meet their Grandparents and the Grandparents have asked to see them as well, so since Mom is about to go on a cruise with her new beau, she agrees to let the kids take a week long visit with Nana and Papa. Becca decides to film everything with the ulterior motive of getting her Mom and her Grandparents back together. But the kids soon find out that there’s definitely some seriously amiss at their Grandparent’s home in rural Pennsylvania. Let the terror begin.
M. Night Shayamalan is warped. There’s no doubt about that. This is another warped film that I found extremely scary and thrilling and it was an enjoyable couple hours in the dark getting our scares on. But Night has his haters, and there are many folks that want to pile on this film because of him. I agree that he’s done a few clinkers lately, but I do like his style. That isn’t to say there isn’t anything wrong with this film though. I did like it, but I do have a few gripes. First, enough with the damn hand held “found footage” films. I do not get motion sickness, but this is another one of those movies that have the camera jumping around way too much. Meanwhile, he tries to have it both ways, as much of the time, we’re watching the kids holding the camera, and if this is supposed to be a found footage film, who’s holding that camera? But it’s not as shaky as a lot of this genre, so I can forgive that much. Secondly there are some really big plot holes in this film, but to tell you what they are would give away too much of the twist, so I’ll let it go as well. Otherwise, this is a movie with essentially 4 characters, and the four of them do and awesome job. They are all unknown to me, but Night gets the emotion out of them pretty well. It is quite scary, and that’s a good thing. Granted the concept is a bit far fetched, but it could happen, and so it is best to sit back and enjoy the film and forget trying to analyze it too much. It’s a nice horror film for Halloween and a decent job from Night, but he is warped. That’s the truth. This film had a great opening weekend when all the Night fans showed up, but has dropped off quite a bit. That’s too bad, as it’s not all that bad. If you like scary movies, then go on and give it a try.
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