Watched the movie last night with no knowledge of it except for the director’s last film. I was expecting another kinda campy high school horror film like Talk To Me, and that was not what I got; what I got was leagues better.
This movie surpassed every expectation and continued to blow me away as it progressed.
The casting was perfect. I would change nothing there. Sora Wong and Jonah Wren Philips deliver remarkable performances.
The pacing was remarkable; the last movie to keep me so locked in was Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, and I don’t think any movie excepting The Lighthouse has filled me with such an overwhelming and compounding sense of anxiety and dread, and the antagonist is loathsome to an insane degree.
I did not find the cinematography particularly remarkable, but the tape nailed the snuff film vibe perfectly and the scenes of violence were next level and hauntingly vivid.
There are a few “trademark horror movie stupidity” moments (phone left unlocked on the bed), but they do not ever put the characters at a disadvantage to my recollection, which was super refreshing.
Also refreshing and something that I tremendously appreciate is the lack of jump scares.
I particularly liked how unique this movie’s approach is to common tropes of the genre. Despite the cursed media and ritual tropes, this movie oozes with originality in every aspect, and I was never certain of the outcome of its events.
