Chillingly tense.

Rating: 6/10 (18 October 2016)

This is a movie that tries to rely on simplicity rather than going into more complicated territory, and it uses the simplicity to try and stir the more natural fears we ALL share. Does it accomplish this? Absolutely!
From the get go we as viewers know that the story is about a trio of house burglars who find out that an army vet has a lot of money stashed away in his old and rusty house in a very quiet street, the catch is that the man in blind.
The film sets up its characters well enough, particularly the character of Rocky played by the very camera-friendly Jane Levy. We see a glimpse into their lives and what it is that drives them into the house in the first place. I liked this about the movie, but I found myself wanting to see more of the other two as well, and unfortunately we don't get that.
The character of The Blind Man is also handled well, perhaps more so than the rest of the cast. Stephen Lang does a fantastic job of portraying this surprisingly complex character. The greatness comes with the slow but steady transformation of our viewpoint of the man, and it is a haunting transformation to say the least.
The other strong points of this movie are particularly the well thought out screenplay as well as the sleek cinematography. I am dead serious when I say that this is a genuinely well produced horror/thriller film. The minimalist soundtrack rounds this all off with great style.
Now, with all of the positives out of the way, I do need to point out some of the places where the movie doesn't succeed, because, trust me, there are a few of them.
The film kicks off with a real strong start, and for the first hour it is almost flawless, however, later in the film the whole thing starts getting a bit much. We are pulverized with twists and turns that sometimes feel like they don't really need to be there, and these actually make the movie drag on a bit when it feels like it should have already reached its climax. The movie then drags on even more in the last ten minutes and by then I had seen enough of the same thing for it to not be quite as exciting as it was in the beginning.
The other big problem with this movie is the plot holes. I'm not going to say that there are many of them, but the ones that are there do stand out when you stop to think about them.
This is a very chillingly tense movie that was handled with enough care for it to stand out as one of the finest horror films of the year. I was sitting at the edge of my seat for the majority of the film, and it is so originally simplistic in its approach that it ends up delivering a surprisingly scary experience.