Director: Bryan Bertino
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Upon arriving at her family's farm, a woman intending to help look after her sick father with the rest of her brothers becomes concerned when something strange starts happening to her and everyone else on the farm, and upon eventually learning the truth forces them to fight off its effects together to stop it from spreading.
Review:
For the most part, this was an exceptionally enjoyable and chilling effort. One of the film's brightest features is the seemingly desolate and dark atmosphere that permeates the house from the second we arrive. The chill in the air and depressing vibe from her family denote something awful is about to happen before anything actually does as the strained family relationship being evident trying to care for their invalid grandfather being sick and in bed only adds to the dreaded air on display. When the incidents start piling up and the horrific nature of what's happening to them becomes apparent this early setup is an appropriate setup for those events and creates plenty of chilling work to come from the film.
Once those events start happening, the film picks up considerably. The opening incident with the finger chopping only to be discovered in the morning hanging from a suicide noose in the barn gives this a shocking and equally tragic start to things which veers away from that nicely into the chilling realm. From the minor tactics which include creepy shots of disfigured beings standing suddenly behind someone unaware they're there or hallucinations of themselves with imaginary wounds to much more troubling such as the suspected-imaginary incident with the supposedly-invalid grandfather appearing to torment her only to be alone when help arrives, there’s a lot to like here.
This becomes even more of a plus once the film moves into the third act and offers up tons of impressive elements. That the attacks here become far more gruesome and chilling, featuring the deformed beings arriving at the house and forcing them to commit graphic suicide after seeing them, attacks throughout the house and barn where they continually encounter the presence of the beings around them. That these encounters provide scores of brutal and bloody deaths brought about through some wholly unnatural means showing the influence and power of the beings around them, it adds that much more power to what unfolds in a truly dark and chilling finale. All told, these are what hold the film up.
There are some issues to be had with this one. One of it’s biggest flaws is the dreary and incredibly measured pacing that this one works through, drawing itself out to a rather obviously slow tempo that may not work for some. Those will find this a drag with the films’ insistence on keeping everything at the same even-keeled pitch throughout which offers more of a dramatic flair that may not drive home the horror-action as often as some viewers would want. The other factor to be had here is the seeming inability to recognize that something’s wrong and needs to be resolved, as the escalation of events and murders that take place here demand attention from outside sources which doesn’t happen at all here making it feel unrealistic that they’d stick around for all that happens here. These are just the only detrimental factors though.
Overview: *****/5
One of the more impressive and chilling genre efforts of the year, there’s quite a lot to like about this one and the few minor drawbacks don’t have much bearing on the film as a whole anyway which all leave this one really enjoyable. This is definitely for those who are intrigued by what’s going on here or prefer the slower-paced drama-heavy genre efforts, although those who aren’t into that style overall should heed caution.
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