Whyyyyyyyyyy?

Rating: 3/10 (7 February 2019)

So, I was really excited to see this and I was finally able to the other night. I had no idea what this was about other than Toni Collette was in it and it was a horror movie that I kept hearing positive things about.
I'm a person that has to watch scary movies with a hand over my eyes and peep through my fingers. I expected to be having nightmares and having it haunt me...
Well, I guess they did make me feel haunted but in a pretty negative way.
But I am still thinking about it and talking about it... Regardless if you're getting positive or negative talk, any talk is good.
Anyway, I just do not get where the positive reviews came from. What I witnessed was a real mess that was full of plot holes and had no character development.
I will admit, I watched it in two days on my firestick. The first day the volume just seemed really low and I did think I missed some things but day two I put subtitles on so I could know what was being said better.
Spoilers***
1. What was wrong with Charlie? (if it was said I missed that part)
2. Wtf was up with the mom forcing Charlie to go with the brother to that party? It just made no sense! Charlie didn't want to go. The brother didn't want her to go. After seeing how the mom acts I can see why the son didn't fight about it, but still... Why let a young kid that clearly has issues go to a teenage party with people she doesn't know and she's too young to even try to fit in.
3. I don't have any food allergies that would kill me, just some that make me have migraines and stomach issues and even with my not-that-dangerous allergy I always ask if those ingredients are in anything I eat. Charlie didn't question if there were nuts in the cake? She just ate it? She had no epipen? I guess the retort could be "well she was possessed by Polimon (or whatever his name was) so she had no choice"
But we really didn't know all that until the end. The situation comes off ridiculously absurd, especially with the close up of the nuts being chopped in a frenzied shot. This wasn't foreshadowing this was beat-you-over-the-head Charlie's going to have an allergic reaction.
4. Speaking of frenzied camera shots. It was pretty clear to me that Charlie was going to be killed with the way the drive was going. I couldn't even take that seriously. Normally with that kind of thing happening I'd be yelling out loud "oh my God" or "wtf?!" or some exclamation of shock and horror. With this scene it was expected and my reaction was to hysterically laugh about the absurdity I just witnessed.
5. I'm assuming this was glossed over to not make this film any longer than what it was but we saw absolutely no immediate events after Charlie died,aside a two second funeral. I wanted to see the son and the parents interaction upon finding out the son left the dead sister in the car.
6. Why was Gabriel Byrne in this? He had hardly any presence or lines. He was bland and he could have been played by anyone. He's a great actor and I didn't get why a big name actor would want that role. Also, how did he deal With the wife. I yelled repeatedly, "leave her!" at the screen.
7. Toni Collette... Wow. The faces. I can't. Her acting was so over-the-top. When she was looking through that photo album those expressions were out of control. I couldn't stop laughing. I work at a mental health facility and I felt like I was at work watching this. So I guess her acting was good but she was also reminiscent of Peggy Gravel in Desperate Living (from John Waters).
8. Did they have a dog? It was literally in one scene and died (?) maybe (?)
9. I truly felt bad for the son. Poor kid went through a lot.
I get the allegory of it all but it was just too lacking and full of plot holes to me to take it seriously. It might have worked better if they were trying to go for absurd and darkly humorous.
I probably have more to say but I think I'm just done thinking about Toni Collette's faces in this.. By the way, I am dying laughing just thinking about her faces.
Toni Collette's character was the biggest monster in this movie in my opinion.
Her dioramas were amazing by the way. I would love to see more of them. That was my most favorite part. They were so cool and detailed.