A mentally fragile and damaged artist who has been tormented by terrifying nightmares all her life is taken by her brother and some friends for a break on a remote and deserted island where something spooky and unseen soon begins to brutally butcher the group until she's forced to face the childhood horror she has always feared alone... While I of course don't speak for everybody who's never seen this mystery-shrouded horror movie before, I really enjoyed it, and I went into it without any expectations one way or the other, it was a blind buy and it turned out to be a nice little surprise, I was quite won over by its beautifully desolate and haunting locations and its very strange and compellingly eerie atmosphere, I thought it was really cool and clever how it had a tone of surrealism that blurred the line between dreams and reality in a way that when it ended you weren't really sure which was which. I'd never even heard of it before, so based on my personal experience I'd say it's an underrated movie. It was very slow but not so much that I ever found it a slog, it had my interest, the tension was always there and it always built up to something. Personality-wise I thought it was a bit lacking, the characters were well acted but they were mostly just really plain and uninteresting, and the music, while definitely giving it a distinctive atmosphere and tone, was a bit too big and glorious for me, I started to find the melodramaticness of it distracting at certain parts.. Overall though I had a good time with it and it was a nice new horror flick to discover. That ending was just awesome and capped off and pinned the whole movie together beautifully and slapped a big eerie question mark over everything that was quite creepy and foreboding in itself. Did poor Kay actually die in the fire at the claws of the spectral abomination and the childhood nightmares had always been leading up to her inevitable demise in a never ending hellish loop she could never escape... Nightmare, premonition, or something in between..it feels like it's up to you to decide. Somehow I thought it was satisfyingly open ended, it actually managed to do that! It looks a little goofy but for the brief moment that you see it, I loved the monster, it looks like a spirit, you're not sure if it's Kay's personal demon or the manifestation of all of her fears... The kills I thought were all very well done, they had a great visceral quality about them that I thought was more than a match for the kills of Friday the 13th say..especially the guy who gets a fishhook in his throat and is slowly dragged into the ocean, that was awful. It's no gorefest but they sure made what little blood there was count! This fantastically atmospheric and tightly-wound surrealistic horror picture pulled me right in, and I liked how it gave you something to mentally chew on and puzzle over after the movie was done. Very recommended for those who enjoy horror that's slow burning and mysterious. Weird but solid and genuinely creepy! x
