SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Tyreece Hulme
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
thesar-2
Like them or not, I have to support movies like this. Nowadays, 95% of all horror movies involve ghosts, possession, exorcisms, haunted homes, found ghost footage, etc. Not all home invasion thrillers are great, but at least they fall in the crispy 5% of horror I enjoy.In this movie's defense, it came out in 2012. Before, during and especially since that time, there have been many home invasion thrillers. I'm okay with that as long as they're made right. Most, if not all, feature a minimal budget and shooting in all-but one location and not rely on cheap "ghost" scares, it's a positive for the producers. Since I disavow ghosts, spirits, haunted hotel rooms, etc, the real scary movies are the ones that could really happen. Such as home invasions. This one isn't so much a twist on the H.I. subgenre, but it does contain some incredible cinematography, acting, dialogue and frights.Yet another shattered family mourning the loss of a child excludes themselves in a cabin in the woods. All-but immediately, the creepy neighbors with no sense of timing, introduce themselves and invite their way into our hero family's home for some quality dinner time. It doesn't take a genius to figure out this isn't gonna end well.While the movie's not perfect and the last third is whack, the build-up and fright-factor is on high-alert. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed other home invasion films more, but the good here severely outweighed the bad and is a total recommendation for fans of the subgenre.***Final thoughts: It's August. We're not even half-way through (tomorrow'ish) and I cannot stop thinking of my favorite month of the year: October. I just adore everything about that month leading up to my favorite holiday and an entire 31 days of horror movies. Since I'm so restless for my favorite month to arrive and my craving to see new-to-me horror movies was seriously strong, I turned to a fantastic guide to horror movies: The Fright File, by Dustin Putman, a friend of mine.This great movie review book has all the classic horror movies, like Halloween and the Scream series, but it also contains more evaluations from Dustin on lessor known gems, such as this one. I probably would never have heard of this thriller if not for The Fright File book.If this sounds like a commercial and endorsement for 'The Fright File: 150 Films to See Before Halloween,' you are smart. Now go to http://www.thefrightfile.com/book/ and get your copy today. Especially now so you'll have time before October really hits and you should be able to find/purchase most of these movies.
Neil Welch
Mark and Mary and son Brendon retreat to the family's remote holiday house in order to recover from a tragedy, only to find that the new neighbours have it in mind to find out as much as possible about them, kill them, and steal their identities.This film has a good cast (albeit the two male leads are each playing the part the other should have played), good performances, and an intriguing (if underwritten) character in the baddie's "wife". On the other hand, it has a very slow start, a plot we've seen a hundred times, victims who annoyingly fail to take advantage when they have the upper hand, a climax which is over and done with in no time flat, and a desaturated colour palette.Is the good sufficient to outweigh the negative? That's your decision. For me, it was borderline.
FlashCallahan
After the accidental death of their six-year-old daughter, the Hughes family escape their busy upscale suburban life and head to their isolated cottage for some quality time. An evening with their friendly neighbours is suddenly interrupted when one mans obsession with perfection escalates into a violent struggle.This forces the families to go beyond what they ever thought they were capable of in order to survive.......First off, never get friendly with a man who drops off wood for no reason outside your door at an unearthly hour. He is going to be a nutter.Secondly, you are going through the grieving process, why invite a family round for dinner?This, and many other questions go unanswered in this mundane, wannabe house invasion thriller, which tries to hark back to Funny Games, and Desperate Hours, but just becomes desperate.The characters are boring, wholly unlikable, and bitter, and by the second act, you couldn't care less who survives and who buys it.The acting is mundane, Blair looks like she's been dug up, and the rest of the cast falter.Stick with Haneke's Funny Games, either version is better than this.
Tony Bush
This skin crawling little creeper leaves a lasting impression. It utilises the same "parents grieving for a dead child and on a retreat to heal" motif as DON'T LOOK NOW, DEAD CALM and ANTICHRIST. But this is little more than an angle on which to hang the disturbing and hyper-tense drama.Successful career couple Mary and Mark, along with their eight year old son Brendon, decamp to their luxurious family cottage in the wooded middle of nowhere following the death of their daughter. From the off, with Mary being watched by someone in the woods, the atmosphere is one of unnerving discord. Things quickly escalate when "neighbours" Bobby, Jane and their son, Jared, invite themselves to dinner. Seems the neighbours are not so friendly; in fact, they are itinerant wanderers who kill others and take on their identities and possessions until it's time to move on to the next unfortunate family.Each performance is pitch perfect and the sense of creeping unease and foreboding is almost palpable. Bobby (James D'Arcy) is a criminally insane sociopath capable of extreme violence and brutality. He wants to play with his victims before taking them out. Psychologically, sexually and physically. His adopted wife and son are thoroughly indoctrinated and submissive acolytes, utterly entrenched in his psychotic ideals of achieving a perfect life.The tension is skilfully ratcheted up in a slow burn by first time director Regimbal, from the increasingly uncomfortable dinner sequence to a suspense-filled climax. This is one of those films that will have you on the edge of your seat, willing the victims to do something, anything, to fight back against the increasingly dire circumstances that threaten to overwhelm them.Performances are effective and emotionally convincing all round. Audience sympathies are never divided, for the antagonists are irredeemably cruel, inadequate psychopaths in pursuit of a twisted dream and the protagonists anguished and grieving innocents struggling to come to terms with tragedy. It's a powerful and provocative piece of work that stands head and shoulders above most of the phony schlock horror out there, and for this reason alone deserves attention.
