Close to Excellent....

Rating: 8/10 (24 September 2013)

It's too bad when Wan goes along beautifully and then loses his grip. That's the only real problem here, and kindly ignore reviews trashing the acting, etc. It's uniformly solid, with believable leads, and Wilson nicely avoids what could be a 'pretty boy' trap. The scares begin and build creatively, and the direction keeps you in pace with the victims. Yes, the whole idea is 'Poltergeist', but absolutely everything's been done before anyway, and what matters is the novelty of approach. This film brings it. Sadly, the rescue of the boy in the Further is just too, too protracted, and relies too much on stock horror nightmare props. I'd have preferred plain murky, for why would these lost souls be so fetishistic over scary dolls and creepy music? This is a dimension, after all, and not a realm within a person's mind, which might explain those elements. And...I wanted a happy ending. Sorry. But I did. All that said, however, it's highly watchable and light years better than all the slasher/sadism porn calling itself horror.