Unrealized potential

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2018)

In his first feature-length film, director, Ari Aster, shows confidence and a mastery of the horror genre. Unfortunately, he is a better director than he is a writer.
The first two-thirds of the film are not bad. We're never quite sure if we're seeing reality or an expression of the main character's madness. Toni Collette is brilliant, as usual. The pace and atmosphere are appropriately foreboding. But neither of those things are enough to rescue a script that, by the end, degenerates into predictable banality. We've seen this plot before. Rosemary's Baby immediately comes to mind.
By the trite ending, we feel robbed. While there are things we may not quite fully understand we simply don't care enough to try to figure them out. And that's the biggest indictment of a horror film of all.