A thankfully refreshing take to the horror genre

Rating: 8/10 (14 April 2020)

Absolutely loved this film, I was captivated from the beginning to end. I don't even know where to start.
This film doesn't treat you like an idiot. It actually uses inference to let the audience figure things out for themselves and not spell it out for you like a lot of horror films do. Theres no characters going "oh! so this means that and oh remember that scene audience???". Thank god.
Cinematography also is usually lacklustre in horror films which I find frustrating as the genre gives so much opportunity to do some wacky and inventive things. And since this is horror; you're trying to scare the audience, you can do a lot of things with that space given. This film delivers that, the shots are amazing and adds another dimension to the experience. One example is that use of slow, creeping zoom shots add it's overall vibe, it also is a reference to the film's monster. The long take at the beginning of the film is also perfect.
In a lot of horror films, I find a lot of unrealistic and questionable settings, character decisions and rules that are set in the universe that are inevitably broken, all of these things take me out of the experience. While I can't say this film dodges all of that, it still does a killer job. I'm usually a stickler for endings and resolutions too, almost never feeling completely satisfied in these kind of plots but with this film I thought it was great.
I do think there are a lot of questions to be asked about how the monster works but I still think that they revealed and left out enough information to make it work really well.
The acting was really good in this film, the characters felt really grounded and realistic which I loved. They also actually had personality, were funny and weren't 1 dimensional. EXCEPT for Greg (the skeptic who died), I do think he was kind of poorly written and it was too convenient to the plot.
The soundtrack is also amazing, synths were masterfully utilised, and using it in suspenseful parts making them sound unsettling and uncanny was so smart. Reminds me of those niche little 8 bit games you can find in the indie gaming world.
God I could go on and on but these are the things that struck me the most about the film. I need to watch it again.