I didn't realise it was directed by the guy who directed Sigaw until after I'd seen it. (Sigaw is one of my faves). This director doesn't rely on cliché techniques such as jump scares, fake-outs, shadows jumping across doorways and all that other stuff we're so used to. He simply puts together a carefully crafted story and tells it beautifully with interesting twists and an obvious love for his craft.
This is not a movie for the slash & giggle crowd or the jump-addicts. It's a psychological suspense drama that will - if you let it - draw you in and play with your emotions (and this coming from a chick who avoids dramas like the plague!!) while surrounding you with creepy suspense. It's actually a very sad tale for all concerned and isn't the kind of horror movie you can just watch for the "fun of it" and dismiss afterwards as just another horror flick. It's a tragic tale of dysfunction with a lot of ghosts and ghoulish moments.
Some of the acting may have been a bit dodgy (particularly from some of the youngsters in the first act & one of the 'grieving' mothers unfortunately was laughably bad), but other more experienced actors were extremely good. All of the main characters in the third "act" were outstanding & I was deeply effected by their performances. The camera work was often brilliant and the director uses a range of techniques, lighting, camera shots, emphasis, background objects, etc to create the right mood or effect. For example, in one early scene he jumps between ordinary cameras and a shaky handy-cam throughout a particularly harrowing sequence. For a minute there I was afraid he was going to turn the whole movie into one of those unbearable "trendy" flicks where it's all shaky hand-held camera work and half the time the actors are barely on screen and you end up feeling violently ill from motion-sickness. My had was actually reaching for the eject button! But mercifully he didn't succumb to that. Just like he didn't give in to conventions anywhere in the movie. He was just using that convention for that particular scene to enhance the conveyance of terror felt by the characters. This is how that camera technique should ALWAYS be used (if at all!!).
The movie's score was perfect and the settings used were excellent and put to good effect. One or two head-scratching plot holes perhaps - or it could be a cultural gap issue. I'm not sure. In any case, it doesn't detract from my overall view that this is a movie well worth seeing.
I am not a fan of slow, overly clever, "arty" movies (eg The Devil's Backbone left me completely unimpressed - I rate this flick as better) and this movie, although it's not a fast past action-oriented one by any means, was well paced and grounded. It never stepped over the line into pretentious like TDB and similar movies.
Watch this if you like mystery, suspense, thrillers and don't need to have a scream a minute thrill-ride every time you watch a movie. Don't watch it if you can only enjoy a horror flick if it's a screaming pointless gore-fest with no real story to it (or if you can't stand subtitles!! LOL).
This is not a movie for the slash & giggle crowd or the jump-addicts. It's a psychological suspense drama that will - if you let it - draw you in and play with your emotions (and this coming from a chick who avoids dramas like the plague!!) while surrounding you with creepy suspense. It's actually a very sad tale for all concerned and isn't the kind of horror movie you can just watch for the "fun of it" and dismiss afterwards as just another horror flick. It's a tragic tale of dysfunction with a lot of ghosts and ghoulish moments.
Some of the acting may have been a bit dodgy (particularly from some of the youngsters in the first act & one of the 'grieving' mothers unfortunately was laughably bad), but other more experienced actors were extremely good. All of the main characters in the third "act" were outstanding & I was deeply effected by their performances. The camera work was often brilliant and the director uses a range of techniques, lighting, camera shots, emphasis, background objects, etc to create the right mood or effect. For example, in one early scene he jumps between ordinary cameras and a shaky handy-cam throughout a particularly harrowing sequence. For a minute there I was afraid he was going to turn the whole movie into one of those unbearable "trendy" flicks where it's all shaky hand-held camera work and half the time the actors are barely on screen and you end up feeling violently ill from motion-sickness. My had was actually reaching for the eject button! But mercifully he didn't succumb to that. Just like he didn't give in to conventions anywhere in the movie. He was just using that convention for that particular scene to enhance the conveyance of terror felt by the characters. This is how that camera technique should ALWAYS be used (if at all!!).
The movie's score was perfect and the settings used were excellent and put to good effect. One or two head-scratching plot holes perhaps - or it could be a cultural gap issue. I'm not sure. In any case, it doesn't detract from my overall view that this is a movie well worth seeing.
I am not a fan of slow, overly clever, "arty" movies (eg The Devil's Backbone left me completely unimpressed - I rate this flick as better) and this movie, although it's not a fast past action-oriented one by any means, was well paced and grounded. It never stepped over the line into pretentious like TDB and similar movies.
Watch this if you like mystery, suspense, thrillers and don't need to have a scream a minute thrill-ride every time you watch a movie. Don't watch it if you can only enjoy a horror flick if it's a screaming pointless gore-fest with no real story to it (or if you can't stand subtitles!! LOL).