December 28th, an OnDemand rental. This film is just one of many low budget, minimalist (I have no idea if I am using that phrase properly) horror/suspense films that come out every year. There are usually some very good ones but the ratio of crap to gems is probably around 4 to 1 (that's a wild ass guess, no data to back it up). This is one of the good ones. The problem with these types of films is actually having to wade through the garbage to get to them. Sometimes you get lucky but most times not so much.
Director/Writer David F. Sandberg made this film as a short film in 2013 that went viral on Youtube and Vimeo. The full length version premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June and went nationwide on July 22nd. With a budget around $5 million, the film has grossed nearly $150 million worldwide and $68 million domestically (with that type of return on investment, it's a given that the market will get saturated with these types of films). The film received a 76% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
Sanberg's film is quite simple, an evil entity has been stalking woman Sophie (Maria Bello) and her family. The entity only shows up in the dark and does evil things when she shows up. The exposition is that Sophie suffered from mental illness as a kid and she befriended Diana at the institution. Diana had a skin condition that made her more or less allergic to light. While attempting to treat Diana's condition, she dies. Sophie's son Martin, sees Diana, hears his mother talking to her, he freaks out and enlists the aid of his sister Rebecca (Teresa Palmer). Diana attacks Martin and Rebecca at her apartment and that leads to a showdown at Sophie's house.
The film opens with Sophie's (2nd) husband being killed at his warehouse. Sandberg doesn't waste anytime and gets right into it. The film has an under 90 minute run time and I like that. Just start offing people. Go to it. The film is very suspenseful and has a few standard jump scares. There are a few plot issues (everyone running upstairs for example) but they're minor. I also like the fact that Sanberg adhere's to the old adage of "hide the monster." Diana is a shadow, when she's onscreen, she's blacked out and you can only see her form.
That's creepy enough for me.
However there's a scene where she's seen in black light and she looks similar to other films' evil entities of similar nature...
Diana from Lights Out (2016).
This young lady from Insidious (2010).
Even the sinister guy from the Sinister franchise (2012 & 2015).
But I can't kill a guy for that. These are all low budget films and some things are going to fall short to maintain that budget (Maria Bello is the biggest name of the entire cast and if she got paid upwards towards $1 million, that's a 5th of the budget, that's an example though). Sandberg keeps the pace flowing smoothly and the acting is adequate. If you are into the horror/suspense genre, this is a nice film to watch.
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