It doesn't add up

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2019)

The miniatures, the tree house, the clucking, the flies, the nightmares, the fire, the plot reveal, and on and on. They felt like a checklist of elements put to the audience expectating that we'll buy-in based on our emotions and look past the lack of a unifying theme.
Save for the brilliant sequence towards the end of the first act I was never once disturbed or scared. And that's down to the arbitrary nature of the film. Scares have to be set up, be they jump scares or psychological frights.
The great scene at the end of act one aside, the real highlight of the movie was Toni Collette's fantastic lead performance. She elevated the hell out of this material.