Cool premise, but ultimately not much of a film

Rating: 6/10 (28 April 2018)

I'm pretty surprised by all the raves for this one. Maybe I'm getting too old, but it doesn't seem like folks are requiring much these days to declare a movie a masterpiece. At the outset, I bought in; I thought this might be something great -- you all know the premise already, and it is a good one. But then, the story never takes off -- for me it's pretty flatline... Other negative reviews have mentioned the logic inconsistencies/failings -- and certainly there were those -- but for me, the major offense was the lack of narrative momentum. We're presented with a situation -- and that was certainly well done -- but then, nothing especially interesting happens or drives the plot. For the entirety of the film. I found myself getting bored. I also beg to differ about the incredible "tension." I didn't feel it. Sure, it employs a lot of standard horror movie tropes, and there's all the annoying quiet-THEN-LOUD jump scares, but genuine tension? Not once you've seen the same stuff a bunch, and not when a lot of it is illogical. Sorry, but this movie was a very average -- don't believe the hype. I also wasn't that into the CGI creature(s), which seemed to borrow a bit much from Stranger Things.