FINALLY a genuinely terrifying movie!!!

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2011)

First of all, I'll try to keep this as "spoiler free" as possible. After the extremely eerie opening sequence, the movie's soon-to-be iconic title brutally pops on screen with some the most unnerving strings ever heard. From that moment, you know you're in for one Hell of a ride. Then we go back to "normal" in a very Poltergeist-esque setting: a happy family moving in to a new house, one of the children has an encounter with evil spirits and gets lost on the other side, the parents try to help their kid the best they can, they bring in mediums, of course, and the rest is history. YES, a lot of this film might appear as déjà vu, but the director knows that, and that's exactly why he, in between two terrifying and effective jump scares, winks at some of the greatest horror movies out there. Hey he even got Barbara Hershey in this movie, for Christ's sake. The cast is absolutely brilliant: Rose Byrne's talent stands out the most, but Patrick Wilson is pretty impressive, and Barbara Hershey shines as always. Lin Shaye brought in the tongue-in-cheek humour this movie much needed, both for brief moments of stress relief and for showing us that it's not taking itself too seriously (it's a horror movie, not Casablanca.) Don't take this the wrong way, humour doesn't mean lean on scares. Never in my life have I been THIS terrified while watching a film (only Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" and Ti West's "House Of The Devil" come close to that, in my book.) It felt like a increasing nightmare from the very first shot and it never let go. At some point I was literally shaking in my seat, that says a lot, coming from me. I even screamed at one point, and I'm usually annoyed by people screaming at horror movies. But this... this was something else. It was a movie of sheer TERROR, not just horror. And don't worry, you'll actually SEE the ghosts and other entities in this one... And although I would've imagined them looking less cartoonish, they actually scared the crap out of me for some reason, so I guess their look worked after all... Anyways, see for yourself. Trust me, this is one horror movie you DO NOT want to miss in theatres. Lightning doesn't strike twice and THIS, my friends, might very well be the horror movie of the decade.