After 30 minutes this movie begins to perfectly emulate the primal fear of waking up from a nightmare, in a pitch-black room, feeling like there's something in the corner, and if you make the slightest sound or move an inch it WILL scream the loudest it possibly can.
The film's fatal flaw comes when you don't pay attention to it. You GOTTA be immersed, but then again if you don't prioritize immersion while watching horror movies maybe you shouldn't expect to like them that much anyways! The first 15 minutes or so serve purely to build up that immersion by providing an understanding of the house's normal routine so it can start to break down the established safe spaces. A lot of people think it's boring and clock out at that point, which is a shame because it means that nothing that happens later will work half as well as it does when you've already put yourself in the kids' mindset.
The film's fatal flaw comes when you don't pay attention to it. You GOTTA be immersed, but then again if you don't prioritize immersion while watching horror movies maybe you shouldn't expect to like them that much anyways! The first 15 minutes or so serve purely to build up that immersion by providing an understanding of the house's normal routine so it can start to break down the established safe spaces. A lot of people think it's boring and clock out at that point, which is a shame because it means that nothing that happens later will work half as well as it does when you've already put yourself in the kids' mindset.