I liked this film when I first saw it.
But after a couple of days of recalling moments I realised how much I actually loved it.
The performances were excellent, particularly Poots and Eisenberg who again, after both also starting in the great The Art Of Self Defence, seem to be choosing challenging, unique projects to work on.
Also the direction and writing is brilliant. In one of the most frightening scenes we watch how Gemma cunningly gains information about their captors from 'the boy' .'Pretend to be the person that you saw today'. Seeing her get the upper hand is soon torn away by the boys interpretation. I think this might be one of my favourite scenes in any film now, but its one of many beautifully crafted moments in this film.
I loved the visual style and art direction. From the oddly rendered clouds and the model house designs complete with off-green colour scheme, the boys disturbing pitchshifted tone and dress, to the wonderful mesmerising 'language' on the television. The main characters look completely out of place in it, in their imperfection and increased ill and scruffy appearance.
Its a original, well made and terrifying film, while barely showing a drop of blood and ( I believe) zero jump scares, its a cerebral story. The kind of horror that great playwrights like Pinter or Beckett might concoct... But alas, it seems its mostly lost on much if the IMDB crowd.
Its seems most people disliked this film, or at least were dissatisfied because they wanted answers. Some claiming these are 'plot holes', like they wanted to see the alien spacecraft flying off in the end or some derivative explanation of some inter-dimensional creatures that co-exist (or parasitically at least) with mankind, without our knowledge... or something.
I love that I dont know. Thats whats terrifying and thats why (or at least a major reason) that my mind keeps wandering back to it. These creatures are just there and they are completely alien to us as Im sure most parasitic creatures are to other animal hosts. 'Why?' isnt important, its how the protagonists cope and survive. We reflect on how the humans react to the hopelessness of the situation, their motives and decisions seemed pretty accurate to how we would act (I saw The Blair Witch Project (1999) again recently, its a good film... but someone really should have started a fire as early as Tom had decided to) and, Im pretty sure if they had killed the child, they would have been presented with a new one the next day, no love lost on these creatures.
Sometimes I feel people 'hate' films because they feel cheated by the horribleness of the subject matter, there is no winning for the victims dragged into this world, as its established in the beginning scene, the world can be terrible. I believe if a film affects you on an emotional level, they've probably done something right.
Ill be keen to see more of Lorcan Finnegans work.
But after a couple of days of recalling moments I realised how much I actually loved it.
The performances were excellent, particularly Poots and Eisenberg who again, after both also starting in the great The Art Of Self Defence, seem to be choosing challenging, unique projects to work on.
Also the direction and writing is brilliant. In one of the most frightening scenes we watch how Gemma cunningly gains information about their captors from 'the boy' .'Pretend to be the person that you saw today'. Seeing her get the upper hand is soon torn away by the boys interpretation. I think this might be one of my favourite scenes in any film now, but its one of many beautifully crafted moments in this film.
I loved the visual style and art direction. From the oddly rendered clouds and the model house designs complete with off-green colour scheme, the boys disturbing pitchshifted tone and dress, to the wonderful mesmerising 'language' on the television. The main characters look completely out of place in it, in their imperfection and increased ill and scruffy appearance.
Its a original, well made and terrifying film, while barely showing a drop of blood and ( I believe) zero jump scares, its a cerebral story. The kind of horror that great playwrights like Pinter or Beckett might concoct... But alas, it seems its mostly lost on much if the IMDB crowd.
Its seems most people disliked this film, or at least were dissatisfied because they wanted answers. Some claiming these are 'plot holes', like they wanted to see the alien spacecraft flying off in the end or some derivative explanation of some inter-dimensional creatures that co-exist (or parasitically at least) with mankind, without our knowledge... or something.
I love that I dont know. Thats whats terrifying and thats why (or at least a major reason) that my mind keeps wandering back to it. These creatures are just there and they are completely alien to us as Im sure most parasitic creatures are to other animal hosts. 'Why?' isnt important, its how the protagonists cope and survive. We reflect on how the humans react to the hopelessness of the situation, their motives and decisions seemed pretty accurate to how we would act (I saw The Blair Witch Project (1999) again recently, its a good film... but someone really should have started a fire as early as Tom had decided to) and, Im pretty sure if they had killed the child, they would have been presented with a new one the next day, no love lost on these creatures.
Sometimes I feel people 'hate' films because they feel cheated by the horribleness of the subject matter, there is no winning for the victims dragged into this world, as its established in the beginning scene, the world can be terrible. I believe if a film affects you on an emotional level, they've probably done something right.
Ill be keen to see more of Lorcan Finnegans work.