Raised the bar for modern horror

Rating: 10/10 (9 April 2018)

I am very glad to have seen this movie on the big screen and am blown away with the experience. The direction is perfect. The mood and the tone was set from the very beginning. The premise is simple but very well-executed. It begins with slow-burning tension to set up the mood and understand the characters and the stakes. Then it goes full-on nail-biting intensity until the very final scene. Kudos goes to the excellent performances of all the cast. Despite having very little dialogue, a lot of emotions are expressed through the characters: the tension, frustration, sorrow, and fear. Emily Blunt was excellent, and so were the child-actors, but the stand-out performance for me is John Kransinski's role as the father. This is a clear departure from his comic roles but manages to deliver will full impact. The true horror lay in the anticipation of what horrors would come, and Krasinski as a director manages to remind us very effectively of all the potential dangers that can happen to our protagonists. The gore and jump scares work very well. In fact, there are no empty jump scares, and each jump scare helps build tension as the story proceeds. So effective was the execution of the story that I believe this movie has raised the bar for modern horror.