Kicking right off with the positives, without question, the best thing about this film is Rebecca Halls performance. This woman delivers not only one of the best performances I've seen this year but without doubt, the performance of her whole career. She portrays a woman who is so filled with grief and feels like she's got the weight of the world on her shoulders but she's also very charismatic in the role and also has some nice dark humour. I'll elaborate more on the progression of this scene later but there's one scene where she has to break down and it is performed so so beautifully.
I also loved the storytelling for this film. Once you understand the story for his film, what we watch is such a realistic take on grief and of a woman who is just trying to get her life back on track but is constantly struggling and who is also finding out secrets about her past. What also impressed me as well was this film is in a way setting up the build up to Rebecca Halls big break down scene and my god, the progression and execution to that moment feels so earned.
This film also has a great amount of foreshadowing that once again has great payoff and like all great moments of foreshadowing, it doesn't come off as predictable. Instead it's used subtlety enough as hints as what's to come and it's easy to miss if you're not paying close attention.
Now let's talk about the one thing that could have been this films downfall; the scares. Now I do have some thoughts regarding these when we get to the negatives of this review but like everything else I've mentioned, the scares are executed really well. Yes there are jump scares but instead of being used as gimmicks and using cheap editing tricks, this film builds up the tension for the scares and that is how you correctly utilize a jump scares. But that's not all. This film has some genuinely creepy moments that unnerved me in places and the use of the clever camera work and perfect camera angles just make the scares more unnerving.
And once we get to the 3rd act of the film, it does not hold back. There's a lot of hard hitting scenes as all the pieces come into place that tie into the themes of the film, what was pre-established during the first act, features fantastic editing and beautiful colour correction.
Unfortunately it's not perfect, I did have some issues so let's move onto the mixed aspects and first this is just to say this film is marketed as a horror film but the horror side is pretty much on the back burner as the main story is pretty much a psychological drama that focuses on Rebecca Hall's characters grief so just bare in mind when you do see it, expect around 60% drama, 40% horror. That's my estimation.
Also this is a film that does warrant a rewatch, especially when the ending gets a little confusing to the point during my first watch, I had to read the ending just to understand what happened but during my second watch, it did help me understand the film a lot more.
Now let's move onto the bad parts of the film and this won't take long at all. I only have two main issues. First one is i felt there was a bit too much exposition during the 3rd act and felt there could have been a way to resolve things without overexplaining everything.
And my only other issue isn't about the film itself, it's the marketing. After my first viewing of this film, I wanted to check out the trailer and I'm so glad I didn't watch it beforehand because it highly markets itself as a horror film to the point where it reveals almost all the crucial scare points during the film. So I would advice you to go in blind and not watch any trailer before seeing this film.
But besides that, I think this film is fantastic, I loved it and it's currently residing as my 3rd favourite film of the year thus far. I highly recommend it and I really want people to see this film as I fear in years to come, it may become an underseen and underappreciated horror film.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
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