Heh... I am not at all surprised that this film has such polarized reviews. As you can likely tell by many of the Summaries, people either think it is very good or hate it. The reason being is VERY simple. Whenever you have a very low key 'Horror' film or especially a Ghost Story, unless you are the kind of person who really specifically enjoys these kinds of movies, you are just gonna sit there and think 'What crap!' and be totally bored. Thus the 1 and 2 star reviews that you see here...
I've pretty much given up on people realizing that when they come here to dump all over a specific kind of film that they would NEVER like anyway, it is of absolutely NO help to others who may be looking for this type of film and want to know if it is a good one. It's like if you hate old-style, Classic B-Westerns, and you come here and review a film like that and then say how awful, corny, and stupid it is. How helpful is that to other people who happen to LIKE old B-Westerns. Not terribly much... But, people just do not seem to get that.
Anyway, sorry to digress a bit, but I really wish people wouldn't waste all our time and do that. The story and pacing is SLOW... It is ALL about mood and atmosphere with a good layer of Psychological overtones. Also, it is nominally a Ghost Story, which either you like them or your don't. And, it is a SLOW, moody Ghost Story with VERY little in the way of violence or quick-edits or any overt or graphic imagery. So, if you are on of these people who love films like 'HOSTEL' or 'SAW' or 'THE MARTYRS' or 'HAUTE TENSION', you probably will get almost nothing from this movie at all. Again, precisely the reason for many of the poor reviews that you see here.
As I mentioned, a lot of this film is Psychological, mainly because you are pretty much experiencing it from the point of view of the one guy who has come back to his old home where he was raised. One thing that I really did like was the set decoration, the imagery and the cinematography and lighting. It was very effective in creating the mood of the story. Also, I really liked the soundtrack; although the story and overall mood were very low-key, the soundtrack itself reminded me of some of the more adventurous Horror film soundtracks that I really liked that were more common in Horror films about 40 years ago. It is a nice counterpoint to the slow mood of the rest of the film and can build quite a nice crescendo of suspense in a couple of scenes.
There is a lot of religious imagery, which along with the look of the rest of the film was pretty creepy and effective in adding to the mood. The story is deliberately vague so that the audience doesn't REALLY know quite what is going on. The voice-over narration of the mother who has died and what is revealed about the way he was raised adds to the texture of the story, such as it is. Not to be too specific, but the end was rather mystifying and I cannot honestly say that it was clear to me as to what it meant. But, the way it was done still packed a nice little punch at the end of the film.
Basically as you can likely tell by now, this is NOT your usual modern-day, MTV-induced, shaky-cam, found-footage Horror film. It is very much a throwback to Classic Ghost stories, and very low-key ones at that. So, if you have no real interest in those types of films, then you probably won't care for this one. BUT... if you DO have an appreciation for slow, ambiguous, Psychological, and very moody Horror films, then yes, like me, you probably will will find it intriguing and entertaining.
I've pretty much given up on people realizing that when they come here to dump all over a specific kind of film that they would NEVER like anyway, it is of absolutely NO help to others who may be looking for this type of film and want to know if it is a good one. It's like if you hate old-style, Classic B-Westerns, and you come here and review a film like that and then say how awful, corny, and stupid it is. How helpful is that to other people who happen to LIKE old B-Westerns. Not terribly much... But, people just do not seem to get that.
Anyway, sorry to digress a bit, but I really wish people wouldn't waste all our time and do that. The story and pacing is SLOW... It is ALL about mood and atmosphere with a good layer of Psychological overtones. Also, it is nominally a Ghost Story, which either you like them or your don't. And, it is a SLOW, moody Ghost Story with VERY little in the way of violence or quick-edits or any overt or graphic imagery. So, if you are on of these people who love films like 'HOSTEL' or 'SAW' or 'THE MARTYRS' or 'HAUTE TENSION', you probably will get almost nothing from this movie at all. Again, precisely the reason for many of the poor reviews that you see here.
As I mentioned, a lot of this film is Psychological, mainly because you are pretty much experiencing it from the point of view of the one guy who has come back to his old home where he was raised. One thing that I really did like was the set decoration, the imagery and the cinematography and lighting. It was very effective in creating the mood of the story. Also, I really liked the soundtrack; although the story and overall mood were very low-key, the soundtrack itself reminded me of some of the more adventurous Horror film soundtracks that I really liked that were more common in Horror films about 40 years ago. It is a nice counterpoint to the slow mood of the rest of the film and can build quite a nice crescendo of suspense in a couple of scenes.
There is a lot of religious imagery, which along with the look of the rest of the film was pretty creepy and effective in adding to the mood. The story is deliberately vague so that the audience doesn't REALLY know quite what is going on. The voice-over narration of the mother who has died and what is revealed about the way he was raised adds to the texture of the story, such as it is. Not to be too specific, but the end was rather mystifying and I cannot honestly say that it was clear to me as to what it meant. But, the way it was done still packed a nice little punch at the end of the film.
Basically as you can likely tell by now, this is NOT your usual modern-day, MTV-induced, shaky-cam, found-footage Horror film. It is very much a throwback to Classic Ghost stories, and very low-key ones at that. So, if you have no real interest in those types of films, then you probably won't care for this one. BUT... if you DO have an appreciation for slow, ambiguous, Psychological, and very moody Horror films, then yes, like me, you probably will will find it intriguing and entertaining.