Forgettable

Rating: 5/10 (3 October 2018)

I saw this movie a month or so ago, so it's not fresh on my brain. I do know what stood out to me and what I thought in general of the movie.
Spoilers and Thoughts Below:
Toni Collette is such an amazing actress. I have always loved her and her work, she can do lighthearted to funny to terror. Sixth Sense? I mean, c',mon. Anyways - I was SUPER excited when I saw this move was coming out and starring her. I heard it was one of the creepiest/scariest movies in recent years (I know, I know, we hear that all the time) but Hereditary and Conjuring are the only ones in my recent memory where a substantial amount of people/critics made those comments, and judging by trailers, I could see it having that potential. I thought Conjuring was pretty dang scary, so had high hopes for this movie as well.
I will say that the scene in the car and the little sister dropped my mouth to the FLOOR and it stayed there for a good 1 /12 minutes. They GOT me there, it was a good shock. It's rare a movie can make my mouth literally drop, props on that! I did find it ridiculous that the boy would then just drive home and go to bed. I know shock. I've been there. Can I say I've taken off my little sister's head with a light post? No. But I find it VERY hard to believe that you would be that shocked you go home, go to bed, lay there all night (awake) basically waiting for your parents to find the headless body in the backseat. Not to mention, where were the cops involvement? That would probably be pretty heavily investigated, yet there is no mention of the boy being interrogated or even having one sit down with them. I also found it pretty hard to believe you would then send your kid back to school right after that. I think that would take some INTENSE therapy and some time off of school/work.
Back to Toni, she did a STELLAR job portraying the mother/daughter that has lost her "crazy" distant mother and her different daughter she wanted so badly to bond with. The scene at the dinner table where she loses her crap on the son was so amazingly done, you felt like you were sitting at the table in all its awkwardness and raw pain. The woman can act!
I thought the ending was stupid. Stupid. STUPID. Don't even get me started on headless Toni floating up to the tree house, LOL - WHAT? I realize the headless thing was a theme: the bird, the daughter, dead g-ma in the attic, Toni while possessed, but what did that have to do with the idol they were worshiping in the tree house? Also, whose head was that on the idol? Why did they all have to be headless for a guy with a head to take the "thrown?" I also think they could have done a better job building up/explaining the witch/devil worshiper mother and her followers. I did like how they threw the grandma's friend in there to befriend Toni - but I wish they would have built more up to it and had more details and focused more on it, since that is what the movie ended up really being about. I did think it was "clever" to have it actually be the boy they wanted for the demon, and early on in the movie the daughter (whom the Grandma was closer to) said the Grandma always wished she was a boy. Seeds planted, just didn't give them enough water to grow and be appreciated.
Overall, I gave this movie a 5 on Toni's sheer acting capabilities alone. I think it had some good/creepy parts, but overall, the movie is and will be totally forgettable.