Kaitlyn Dever. What a d*mn performance. I don't think that I have ever seen a completely wordless performance. I will refer to the bad guy and "bad guys" to hopefully not give away anything. The trailer does give away a lot, but it's still something that I would really hope to keep secret. So, this film starts quick. Only the first ten minutes is setup. It does a pretty good job at making you piece things together very quickly. Then, it goes right into the action. The bad guys come very quickly. They establish themselves as the most bad bad guys that are possible. The way they move, the way they speak, and the way they just intimidate you is something I haven't seen in many films. The sounds used by the bad guys is as creepy as it gets. I haven't been tense watching a film in a very long time. This movie pumps tense into the viewer like an IV bag. Everything moves so quick, and the bad guys keep getting worse as you go along. The story gets a little hazy as the time moves on, and that's not a completely bad thing. There are moments of clarity, and moments of WTF?! That just make you think. I constantly was questioning if I wasn't getting something, but it's pretty straightforward. Tales from the Crypt and Twilight Zone are conjured forth to end the whole thing. For everyone out there that goes "huh?" At the end... there is nothing deeper than what you see. There isn't an allegory for agoraphobia, there might be some slight tendencies toward religion maybe, and there is definitely nothing that needs to go deeper. Think about it for a few seconds, and you are good to go. Either way, Kaitlyn Dever was absolutely perfect. If you like Arrival, this is its cousin. Minus the aliens??? Maybe the bad guys are the guys from Home Alone??? Maybe they just speak Greek??? Eh, it's aliens. Or is it?
Amazing twist on a tired genre.
Amazing twist on a tired genre.