Written by Luke Barnes
Summary
Some teens summon and otherworldly entity and it ends badly for them, you know the routine.
This is nothing new and certainly won’t set the world on fire, but it does manage to develop a fairly creepy atmosphere and land a few good scares during its runtime. Solidly watchable.
I think the big issue for me with this film is how formulaic it is, truly if you have ever seen a film like this before then you will be able to predict what happens when and even what characters will say, it takes no chances and does not bother trying to reinvent the format. Moreover, the film is quite clearly low budget, no shame in that of course, and as such doesn’t have the best visual effects. This could have easily handled and done in a way to maximise the scares and also leave us guessing, however, that is not what we get. Instead there are a lot of close us and drawn out sequences of this film’s creature that look straight out of a videogame from over a decade ago.
The big draw of this film is seeing horror icons Lin Shaye and Robert Englund interact together on screen and we do get that to a degree and they certainly both help this film from being even worse though I would say they are underused. The teens who are the film’s main focus are so dull and uninteresting that it is hard to feel anything for them as such you become detached from their struggle.
Overall, Shaye and Englund do their best to salvage this generic film and they do manage to make it watchable.
Pros.
Shaye
Englund
The atmosphere
Cons.
It is generic
It is predictable
The teen leads are instantly forgettable
If you enjoyed this review, then please head over to my Patreon to support me, I offer personalized shoutouts, the ability for you to pick what I review next and full access to my Patreon exclusive game reviews. Check it out!
Another Millennial Reviewer 