It's funny how the horror movies that I like often aren't received too well by the general public. Perhaps it's because the movies often aren't as formulaic as lets say the average modern horror flick but that's exactly why I like them!
I get to see so many modern genre flicks, that just keep on doing the same stuff over and over again. So every time a movie comes along with an original concept, or one that's taking a different approach to things I'm all happy and with the movie, as long is it's doing things right of course.
And this movie uses a pretty good and original concept and has a nice approach to things. Of course it's not the world's best or scariest horror movie around but the movie is a pretty good and enjoyable one nonetheless.
I also admit that one of the big reasons why I liked this movie was because I could really relate to the movie its characters. The story is told from the perspective of two young brothers, who seem to be the only ones capable of seeing a creature under their bed, who comes after them whenever they fall asleep. Now, thing I could relate to is that it's a movie about two brothers, who face a scary and potentially dangerous threat together. As a very young boy, I also used to be scared of monsters, whenever I had to go to bed and my brother, who I still shared a room with back then, seemed to be the only one who could understand me, since he 'suffered' from the same thing. So every night it felt like we were facing and fighting our scares and the 'demons' together, pretty much like the two brothers in this movie, with as an only difference of course that there truly lives a creature in the young boys their room!
Normally I'm not too fond of horror movies that get told from just the perspective of young kids but this movie handles things pretty well. Granted that the Jonny Weston character isn't exactly a young kid anymore but because he's able to relate so well to his much younger brother, his character feels like a very young one himself as well. He's more on his younger brother's level than that of the adults and older kids around him. Their bond feels real and their characters aren't written as dumb or naive young kids. They approach things quite rationally, so it feels like you're watching real persons here, rather than any formulaic written movie characters. It makes you feel more involved with both the movie its story and characters.
The movie is much better at handling the build up than the eventual pay off though. The flat out horror moments are actually often the weakest moments in the movie, as they tend to go a bit too over-the-top at times, by showing and doing too much, especially toward its end. Still, the movie does have some good horror moments in it as well but generally speaking, it isn't one of the movie its strongest points.
The storytelling, the characters, the atmosphere, its setup, it's all handled in a far better and more effective way, which all does in fact still makes this a perfectly watchable genre movie. Especially when considering how original it all feels as well!
7/10
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