This was a damn good horror film...

Rating: 9/10 (16 February 2016)

In a time where that is so depressingly rare to say "I just saw a great horror movie", I am so glad that I finally got a chance to see it. I will go into the plot, but I must press that it is on the ridiculous side in terms of the concept of what this film is about. If you like horror movies like "Christine" or "The Entity" that have a ridiculous concept, but it is done so well in its writing and direction then this is a movie for you. The movie is about a girl who is haunted by a ghost after having sex. Yes. That's right. Now before you stop reading, I know that it sounds like it is a ridiculously stupid concept for a movie that only exists so that there can be more of a reason why there's nudity in a horror movie. Not the case at all. There is some nudity in the flick but honestly not a whole lot, the majority of any nudity to be found is usually by the ghost itself and it's not even close to being sexy, it's seriously creepy and disturbing. Like I said before, this is a movie that if written or directed by anyone else this would have been pretty bad. Like with "Christine" being about a killer car or "The Entity" being about a sexually assaulting ghost, those could have been done so horribly wrong if done by anyone else; in capable hands however they became something really eerie and haunting.
In the movie the girl is tricked into having sex with a guy and so he ties her up and explains to her what the ghost does and how it works as far as he knows. The ghost goes after one person; if that person has sex with another then it moves onto them until the ghost kills them. Then the ghost goes back to the person prior and then the one before them and so on and so forth. The ghost can only be seen by the people who have sexually interacted with the "infected", the ghost only walks but it never stops. It keeps going and going until it reaches their target and practically massacres them. It can change into anyone; whether it is a stranger or someone they love just to get closer. There is no explanation as to why the ghost is doing this, how it all started, who started it, and it is completely unneeded to enjoy this movie. The pacing, the mood, the direction, the cinematography, the characters, the scares, the ghost all work so well and so disturbing that receiving some sort of explanation only would have impeded on the enjoyment to be had. It is creepy just watching this poor girl try to figure out how to get away from this thing. The girl, played by Maika Monroe, does so well in this role. If played wrong this could have been some annoying blonde ditz that I'm begging to get axed off but instead I am immediately stricken with such sympathy for her and this awful thing that she is forced to go through...all because she liked a boy. It's actually kind of heart breaking and even sadder as I think more about it actually.
But anyways, in a lesser written film too she could have been an irredeemable character and just went straight to trying to pass it on to someone else but instead she tries to run or kill it or anything really before she thinks about doing something like that. There isn't a bad character in this whole movie, they are all pretty likable and I definitely like that even the skeptic in this movie (that can be found in most horror movies) still is sympathetic and is actually trying to help instead of mess things up or do something stupid like most usually do. And I cannot get over the awesome cinematography in this film, it is so well shot and I was blown away. Anyone else who sees this film will probably say, "What makes the cinematography so good?" Please just pay attention to the lighting at the very least. In any other horror movie, even ones that I've liked over the past few years, would be so darkly lit that it is anyone's guess as so what is going on. This movie does not care about realism in that regard, if it is going to put a spot light over a car that makes absolute, zero sense to have any light shining over the car then dammit that is what's going to happen.
Also the framing of some of the wide, isolated shots were reminding me of something out of "The Shining" and the camera work screamed Wes Craven more than once. Seriously this is a real good horror film, see it if you can. Do you know how rare that is now? Guess how many good horror films I saw last year...like freaking three. So far we're already halfway through this year and I've only seen one legitimately good horror film. Just this one. I want more like this!