Better than I thought it would be

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2020)

For some reason I put off watching this movie even when I started falling hard for horror, even after I realized that horror was fast becoming the premier art form of century 21. Something about the title put me off. Luckily I forgot what that off-putting thing was and lo, was able not only to watch it, but to enjoy it. I have no problem with certain tropes within the horror genre. Scratch that, I have no problem with most tropes within the horror genre, so long as they are in furtherance of a prime bit of horroring. I therefore give zero focks that the three givens were, well, given, since these three are pretty much de rigueur: 1. hitting with the car, 2. killing of the pets, and 3. ominous aerial view. The only trope I did have a problem with is the the-two-prettiest-people-in-the-movie-who-have-broken-up-for-no-good-reason-and-who-take-the-whole-damn-movie-to-get-back-together trope. Especially because of the gut wrenching use (read: overuse) of the and-one-of-them-sacrificing-himself-for-the-good-of-the-many correlation. Blech. The one redeeming virtue of the use of this particular overused cliché is that once the husband at the center of The Couple to Beat is dead the only male left for the newly minted widow to mate with in this newly minted town of "Barrow, population 5" is that dead hero's little teenage brother. Ah, poetic justice. It's just so just.