Unsatisfying 'horror'

Rating: 3/10 (10 January 2019)

I'll briefly reiterate what others have said - The characters are stereotypical, tick every box and please every audience sort of characters...the movie genuinely spends a good 30% of the screen time making you judge these people, only to then make you feel guilty when they save the day, which happens with every character bar the children. The amount of time dedicated to positive character building is limited and focuses around Sandra's boyfriend.
The plot is mostly filled with non horror based elements, which due to the settings and the hollow characters that have all been built up to be unlikable, is very dry. I don't care that the cars sensors go off, I don't care about the fat pregnant girls life story, or the old man explaining his motives, and the outside doesn't interest me because you know the film won't show you the monsters, the river journey is so unexplained and impossible that I used the river scenes to check my phone.
In order for a movie to be scary or to make you feel peril, there has to be genuine worry and stress exerted on you as the audience. To build stress and worry you need the characters to be worried and stressed...and they can only do that with reasons to be worried (tick) , risk of death (tick), a reason to survive (the kids of course) , a logic to the thing that is risking their lives so that the audience could relate and imagine themselves in that situation (.... No...) And facial expressions to show that they do actually care... Which would be hard if the supporting actors were pretty uninspiring...and the lead actress had Botox done...which would be bad because it would render her facial expressions flat and lifeless which would kill a horror movie. Oh Sandra.
The ending is pretty useless too and only stands to lessen the fear factor of the monsters.
Good concept, good visuals, poor execution of the other movie necessary components.