Unnerving suspense and dread throughout

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2018)

I honestly don't know how this movie has such a low score. Even lower than The Descent, which is a cheap summer teen screen. Blah. Anyway, I'm a huge fan of horror. REAL horror. I appreciate being scared in an honest way, not by cheap jump scares like almost every horror movie made these days. So naturally I go through a lot of bad horror flicks before I find a good one in every hundred or so. When a movie has the ability to make my hair stand up numerous times with no jump scare involved, it makes it into my Blu Ray collection. This one made it in there as soon as it was released. I went and saw this in theatres and my hands were cold and clammy the entire time. I felt exhausted leaving the movies from being perpetually scared for a couple of hours.
This movie has some of the best suspense I've experienced in years. Right from the opening credits while that eerie high pitched note plays, you're immediately put into an unnerving mood. Then the way James Wan actually scares you with true horror. Making you feel scared without needing to pull cheap jump scares to do it. Like in the scene where the demon is in Dalton's room when the mother is describing her dream. All you can see of him is the figure in the dimly lit room, which is scary enough on its own. Then She asks what he wants and all you see is the demon slowly point to dalton with a slight crackling sound as his arm moves. That's it. No jump scare, no cheap effects. Just pure dread. THATS horror! And that's what most of this movie is like
Then there's the score. The sound effects they use from yesteryear such as the slamming of random piano keys in scenes that scare you. Just hearing that jarring sound scares you enough. And I'll never be able to listen to "tiptoe through the tulips" the same way again. Ever.