It is overrated... It's not bad, but it isn't a good as some of the better small horror movies from the past few years... A Quiet Place, The Witch, etc... were all better...

The acting was excellent, but the movie is similar to The Babadook in that it tries to meld a realisric subtext of mental illness with the story's supernatural horror elements.... Although, unlike the Babadook, the movie doesn't make the mistake of undermining the cult/supernatural elmeents too early and manages to hold them until the end...

The problem though, is that the main horror is limited... it seems to only matter to the afflicted lineage and to not even harm others, apart from the father at the very end who was in the way...

I disagree. There were so many artistic details in this that enhanced the quality to the better. As mentioned before, the acting was sublime. In addition, the cinematography was great!

I think that scene was so elevated simply because of the acting from the brother. It was foreshadowed pretty well and not really that much of a shock if you saw it coming, but the reaction afterwards was fantastic and just jaw dropping. Not to mention the moms reaction afterwards, gut wrenching. I really enjoyed the film, it was semi fresh and very artistic. What stands out the most would def have to be the cinematography and acting.

You nailed it OddRob...wasn't so much the scene itself...but the sons' reaction...the way he stopped the car & refused to turn around (admit it...we ALL wanted to get a look at the damage!) he couldn't bring himself to do it and drove home anyway..in total shock! Didn't really care for the movie, but the scene definitely works!

unfortunately, "the scene" took me out of the film, and i was unable to take it seriously or realistically after that. peter came across as an intelligent young man, and i did find it hard to believe that, faced with someone going into anaphylactic shock, he would not call an ambulance, or if he insisted on taking his sister to the hospital himself, not have someone go with him so that, god forbid, they stopped breathing, the could at least try CPR. i also found his reaction to his sister's accident unsatisfying. he just drove home? what happened next? did his parents just find their daughter's decapitated body in their car? did they talk as a family about what happened? were the police involved - i would have thought so...they are an american middle class family, and as such i can't believe that no one in the family, including the doctor father, thought of trying to access some family therapy to try to deal with the trauma they have all experienced.

throughout the film, people did not act anywhere like how someone would in a similar situation (because sure, faced with a student having what appears to be a seizure, and banging his face into a desk, everyone will just stand around and not one person will try to help, not even his friends or his teacher. i don't know how many of you have been in a crisis or a medical emergency, but there is always at least one person that will step up and try to help).

this film felt contrived to me. i think it is seriously overrated.

@MrsBuckyBarnes said:

unfortunately, "the scene" took me out of the film, and i was unable to take it seriously or realistically after that. charlie came across as an intelligent young man, and i did find it hard to believe that, faced with someone going into anaphylactic shock, he would not call an ambulance, or if he insisted on taking his sister to the hospital himself, not have someone go with him so that, god forbid, they stopped breathing, the could at least try CPR. i also found his reaction to his sister's accident unsatisfying. he just drove home? what happened next? did his parents just find their daughter's decapitated body in their car? did they talk as a family about what happened? were the police involved - i would have thought so...they are an american middle class family, and as such i can't believe that no one in the family, including the doctor father, thought of trying to access some family therapy to try to deal with the trauma they have all experienced.

throughout the film, people did not act anywhere like how someone would in a similar situation (because sure, faced with a student having what appears to be a seizure, and banging his face into a desk, everyone will just stand around and not one person will try to help, not even his friends or his teacher. i don't know how many of you have been in a crisis or a medical emergency, but there is always at least one person that will step up and try to help).

this film felt contrived to me. i think it is seriously overrated.

Peter was the boy.

thanks - i've changed the name from charlie to peter.

@MrsBuckyBarnes said:

unfortunately, "the scene" took me out of the film, and i was unable to take it seriously or realistically after that. peter came across as an intelligent young man, and i did find it hard to believe that, faced with someone going into anaphylactic shock, he would not call an ambulance, or if he insisted on taking his sister to the hospital himself, not have someone go with him so that, god forbid, they stopped breathing, the could at least try CPR. i also found his reaction to his sister's accident unsatisfying. he just drove home? what happened next? did his parents just find their daughter's decapitated body in their car? did they talk as a family about what happened? were the police involved - i would have thought so...they are an american middle class family, and as such i can't believe that no one in the family, including the doctor father, thought of trying to access some family therapy to try to deal with the trauma they have all experienced.

throughout the film, people did not act anywhere like how someone would in a similar situation (because sure, faced with a student having what appears to be a seizure, and banging his face into a desk, everyone will just stand around and not one person will try to help, not even his friends or his teacher. i don't know how many of you have been in a crisis or a medical emergency, but there is always at least one person that will step up and try to help).

this film felt contrived to me. i think it is seriously overrated.

A couple of things. I think Peter didnt want to call the cops/ambulance because he was a party drinking and smoking. Probably thought it was best to just get her out of there and to a hospital. Not to mention weed impairs the mind, like alcohol, so Im sure he wasnt thinking straight. And it didnt seem like he had any real friends. Smoking weed under the bleachers in HS with some stoners dosent really count. So him asking a random kid to come with to perform CPR is a far stretch.

As for the reaction to the sister being unsatisfying. You should know that people under stress/shock react very differently. Thats how his reaction was written and actually I could def see many people reacting that way. Just complete shock and denial. Not to mention he was a teenager and completely not prepared to deal with something like that. But than again Im sure many adults wouldnt be equipped any better. The next morning you hear the mother going out and screaming after getting in the car, so yes he just drove home and laid down. And I also remember blue and red lights outside the window as they panned from the mother on the ground screaming to Peter standing in the hallway. Im sure they didnt talk about considering how fucked up the family was to begin with. I mean Peter did remember his mother standing over him with gas and a match. Im sure they never dealt with that.

The students reaction in the class as Peter is bashing his face in the table is pretty typical now a days. Everyone just pulls out cell phones and start recording. Thats the world we live in. The teacher seemed pretty old and probably not up to stopping someone from smashing their face in a table over and over again. But the most important part to remember is that this is a film. You have to suspend disbelief while you watch it. Cause I mean lets face it, no random mom is going to know how to read ancient Latin to summon a demon in her bathroom.

having had 24 hours to think about it, this film has warmed on me a bit more. while i still think it is overrated, and there were too many scenes/human responses that i found a little contrived, i was very impressed by how the plot developed, and i was grateful for the limited use of exposition. it didn't scare me at all (my pervasive emotion was one of sadness for poor charlie and peter, who never stood a chance) , but i was entertained. if someone asked me, i would say it was worth watching, and i'm glad i did.

@OddRob said: Cause I mean lets face it, no random mom is going to know how to read ancient Latin to summon a demon in her bathroom.

I don't need Latin to summon a demon in my Bathroom! Lol

@OddRob said:

As for the reaction to the sister being unsatisfying. You should know that people under stress/shock react very differently. Thats how his reaction was written and actually I could def see many people reacting that way. Just complete shock and denial. Not to mention he was a teenager and completely not prepared to deal with something like that. But than again Im sure many adults wouldnt be equipped any better. The next morning you hear the mother going out and screaming after getting in the car, so yes he just drove home and laid down. And I also remember blue and red lights outside the window as they panned from the mother on the ground screaming to Peter standing in the hallway. Im sure they didnt talk about considering how fucked up the family was to begin with. I mean Peter did remember his mother standing over him with gas and a match. Im sure they never dealt with that.

Yes, it was his reaction that was one of the things that made this film so interesting. It was so bizarre yet at the same time very believable. You could totally imagine someone just shutting down after that kind of trauma.

It is too much overrated, the whole movie was too stale, for a 2 hour movie, not much happened and we had many minutes of nothing, not used for build up or tension, just minutes of nothing. Charlie offed so early was a bit of a shame and the way Peter acted was quite off to what was showed earlier. Peter going home after all that happened without some medical/terapy care was such a nonsense that I can't believe at all.

@Shyboy said:

It is too much overrated, the whole movie was too stale, for a 2 hour movie, not much happened and we had many minutes of nothing, not used for build up or tension, just minutes of nothing. Charlie offed so early was a bit of a shame and the way Peter acted was quite off to what was showed earlier. Peter going home after all that happened without some medical/terapy care was such a nonsense that I can't believe at all.

Peter was having mental issues/family issues from the get go of the film. His family had major problems as we find out. As for the medical/therapy care, Im sure he denied any and Im sure his parents werent going to force him to do it either since they were dealing with their own issues and not in a healthy way either. The whole family was basically fucked up from the start.