After the death of the mother, a family of three finds an unwelcome intruder has come to deal with their grief. In its own way.
Colour-by-numbers demon/monster flick. Sigh. Maybe it's just me, but yet another emotional crisis in American suburbia that ends with a punch-up and a group hug? The only note of interest was in the father's assertion that Carl Jung 'said it all', so I was hoping for some fleshing out of that psychiatrist's spookier notions, particularly related to sleep difficulties and fear of the dark. But no - all rejected later on with a stamp of the heroine's foot: 'But it's REAL!' Some may see the demon/monster as a metaphor for grief, but that idea isn't worked through into action, and we end up with escapism. So much for the power of cinema to bring ideas to life.
The performances are fine - nothing memorable, and one awful piece of direction late on in a reaction shot of the young girl as she blankly watches a grisly death: the actor was probably looking at a green screen, with no help in how to create convincing effect. The editing is pretty rapid, yet the story drags. Not sure why - probably too many unnecessary characters, and the ones who are necessary not properly integrated with each other. The music is low key, with lots of groaning strings and piano semitones, but very busy - a couple of times it almost drowned out recorded messages, and otherwise never failed to tell us how to feel. Silence can be golden. The production values are good, with an awesome swivel pan while checking for monsters under the bed, but not enough to save the story from a low rating.
Overall: I checked my phone a couple of times.
Colour-by-numbers demon/monster flick. Sigh. Maybe it's just me, but yet another emotional crisis in American suburbia that ends with a punch-up and a group hug? The only note of interest was in the father's assertion that Carl Jung 'said it all', so I was hoping for some fleshing out of that psychiatrist's spookier notions, particularly related to sleep difficulties and fear of the dark. But no - all rejected later on with a stamp of the heroine's foot: 'But it's REAL!' Some may see the demon/monster as a metaphor for grief, but that idea isn't worked through into action, and we end up with escapism. So much for the power of cinema to bring ideas to life.
The performances are fine - nothing memorable, and one awful piece of direction late on in a reaction shot of the young girl as she blankly watches a grisly death: the actor was probably looking at a green screen, with no help in how to create convincing effect. The editing is pretty rapid, yet the story drags. Not sure why - probably too many unnecessary characters, and the ones who are necessary not properly integrated with each other. The music is low key, with lots of groaning strings and piano semitones, but very busy - a couple of times it almost drowned out recorded messages, and otherwise never failed to tell us how to feel. Silence can be golden. The production values are good, with an awesome swivel pan while checking for monsters under the bed, but not enough to save the story from a low rating.
Overall: I checked my phone a couple of times.