Am very surprised by the negative comments on this page. While i'm not entirely convinced at the way the plot unfurled, there is still a lot to admire about the film - including the super atmospheric direction, super acting by a talented cast, and the super cool 80's vibe. A crazy tale of guilt and paranoia, there are super dark times aplenty in this engrossing thriller.
Fuck yeah! Do NOT skip this. Insanely promising debut from the Philippou brothers. Comedy in all the right places and genuine terror in all the right places.
You can tell they wanted to subvert expectations of normal cinema-goers but still remain in the 'mainstream horror' bracket and it works a treat. The scares come from personal mania and/or trauma and never(?) through jumpscares even though sometimes it'd feel like a jumpscare was coming...but I think that was deliberate.
It's such a twisted crack at a coming-of-age story and successfully creates horror out of the teenage desire to rebel against what they are told in order to mature through independence - the intoxicating pursuit of things like drugs more than the drugs themselves and then it toys with the mind-loops that got the kid to that point of trying things they're not supposed to. Of course, literally summoning demons for fun is a blatant example of that but I think this story works in other ways too.
So glad I made sure to see this on the big screen. My audience was great too.
Gerard Butler plays the very convincing villain here. However, his expertise is a bit over-done. Still loved the movie though for all its original antics.
I hate it when the hero dies.
pre-2020 i used to think these kinds of movies vastly overstated the us government's incompetence but now i'm just like ah what accuracy!
